


Inanna and the Beast.

by steeleye



Series: A Women's World. [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, F/M, Humour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-10-30 21:55:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 47,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17836838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: Waking up with a dead cat on her chest was the least of Inanna's problems when she went on a quest with a thief, a priestess and a large brown demon.





	1. Chapter 1

Inanna and the Beast.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything you might recognise, I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** Original work, but the story was inspired by various movies and roll playing games.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious UK-English (the original and best) which is different to US-English.

 **Timeline:** The third story in the 'The Women's land' series of stories.

 **Words:** Eighteen chapters of 2500+ words.

 **Warnings:** Don't put you daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington.

 **Summary:** Waking up with a dead cat on her chest was the least of Inanna's problems when she went on a quest with a thief, a priestess and a large brown demon.

0=0=0=0

**851 After the Fall in what was once southern Oregon.**

The town of Rosy was very much like every other town or settlement that Inanna had come across in the six weeks she'd been in this strange land, only bigger. There was a hotel, three saloons about a dozen shops of various kinds, a sheriff's office, post office, livery stable and maybe a hundred dwellings. Apart from the rough wooden stockade that surrounded Rosy the town looked like it'd come straight from the screen of some western movie, or at least it would if Inanna knew what a 'western movie' was. The town's people looked like they'd also all stepped out of a western too, okay there were some surprises, like; a lot of women wore pants instead of skirts. Teenagers and younger children tended to favour short skirts and of course the townsfolk were ninety-nine-point-nine-percent female.

In the time it had taken her to travel this far south the only men Inanna had seen were usually locked up in big cages behind the local sheriff's office and were generally referred to as 'beasts'. At first she'd kind of rebelled against the idea of locking up all men, her own people tended to kill males on sight. Having stopped to rest in a town called Spinfield, there'd been a commotion and she'd rushed out into the street to see a naked, hairy, man running down the street towards her.

There had been a lot of screaming as the 'beast' made a bee-line for her, his erect penis bouncing this way and that as he ran eagerly towards her. The obvious target was far too tempting for Inanna so she kicked out and sent the man sprawling onto the dusty street. Moments later the sheriff arrived with a couple of her deputies and armfuls of chains. Inanna had then helped the sheriff and her deputies chain the beast up and drag him back to his cage. After receiving a small reward of ten D'lahs, Inanna only stayed one night before continuing her journey south.

Her arrival in this new land had been sudden to say the least, one moment she'd been fighting a losing battle against demons and vampire in the caverns under her friend's stronghold. The next thing she knew she was standing, naked surrounded by dead goats in a cave who's only other 'human' occupant was an ancient woman dressed in filthy rags holding a bloody sacrificial dagger in one hand and a dead goat in the other. When Inanna thought about it afterwards, she now realised that she might have done better to have questioned the mad-magic-lady _before_ stabbing her in the chest, but she hadn't, instinct and friend Ayasha's warnings about certain types of magic user had taken over. That, she told herself, was life.

0=0=0=0

After an adventure to rescue some children from some demonic War-pigs...literally, war...pigs. Inanna had gone her own way leaving her new friends the very well-spoken 'Red' Injuns and a witch called Glinda to try to get the children back to their families. Riding to the end of the valley where her battle with the War-pigs had taken place, Inanna had found herself in a much wider valley dotted with farms and small towns. The valley had to be at least ten miles wide, it was mostly flat with several wide rivers meandering through it. There were a lot of people and farms that grew crops and raised sheep and cattle, there was also a lot of apple orchards, the apples being used to not only make pie, but also to manufacture cider which was exported to the lands further south.

There were also a lot of demons that lived in the heavily forested mountains either side of the valley. The demons would raid the outlying farms and settlements carrying off young women and children who they sold as slaves, they also stool the farmer's crops and animals. Inanna found her fury skills being called on almost everyday, she also discovered that in this land furies were paid a bounty for killing demons, sometimes a settlement would pay a fury a set fee for getting rid of a local demonic menace. Although in this land, furies seemed to be pretty numerous and magic more commonplace, Inanna was often told that most furies were 'down south' fighting a big war against the demons there.

Although she was making more than enough money to live on, Inanna found that she wasn't welcome in the places she'd saved after about three days. People's gratitude seemed to run out pretty quickly and Inanna found herself mounting her horse and riding on to the next town where there'd be new demons to fight. Heading south because that's where she'd been told that was where the other furies were and also because one direction seemed as good as another, she'd eventually found herself in Rosy.

0=0=0=0

Riding into town along the great north-south road that stretched from one end of the valley to the other (or so she'd been told), Inanna guided her horse towards the livery stable. Dismounting, she handed the reins over to a young girl who led her horse off into the stable.

“How long are y'staying, fury?” the words came from a woman in her mid-thirties and possibly the mother of the girl who had led her horse away.

“Not long,” Inanna reached for her purse, “maybe three or four days, I just wanna rest my horse...you got a blacksmith?”

“Sure,” the woman nodded, “my wife does the blacksmithin' for the whole town.”

“Cool,” Inanna smiled, “have her change the shoes on my horse...”

“Full board too?”

“Sure, how much?” Inanna opened her purse.

“Five D'lahs,” this was a pretty standard price, “should cover it, we'll settle up any extras when y'leave town.”

“Fair enough,” Inanna handed the woman five, one D'lah pieces, “is there a good, but not too expensive hotel or boarding house in town?”

“Ma Kemp takes in lodgers,” the woman bit on the coins to make sure they were real silver, “half way down main street take a left then its about a hundred paces on the right, y'can't miss it.”

“Thanks,” Inanna turned to go and get her saddle bags but instead found the girl holding them for her.

“Thanks,” Inanna flipped the girl a quarter D'lah, she was feeling generous, before taking the saddle bags from the girl's hand, turning back to the child's mother she asked, “and a good saloon where I can like get something to eat and drink?”

“Try 'The Demon's Head',” the woman pointed down the street and Inanna saw the sign showing a bloody demon's head.

“Thanks,” hitching up her sabre, Inanna slung her saddle bags over her shoulder and headed on down the street.

When Inanna had arrived in this new land, she'd not been able to find any clothes in the sorceress' cave, but she had found a lot of weapons. Choosing the sabre because it had sort of called to her and it fitted well into her hand she soon discovered it was just a little too long for her and dragged along the ground if she wore it from the belt around her waist. Having tried carrying it on her back, she'd discovered that contrary to what adventure stories might suggest, drawing a sword from your back when the blade was longer than your arm was next to impossible. 

A helpful blacksmith had cut down the blade by six inches, but this had unbalanced the weapon so she'd altered the hand guard a little to compensate, she also made Inanna a wooden scabbard for her modified blade. Wooden scabbards tended not to blunt the sword's edge as you drew it, they also didn't 'clank' against your leg giving away your position and of course they were lighter. In her travels Inanna had also picked up some traditional fury clothing. Her outfit consisted of a dark red jacket with black pants tucked into brown riding boots; she'd also bought some more feminine clothes, a couple of blouses, one short and one long skirt, plus some underwear. Not unsurprisingly in a land almost completely populated by women the bras were surprisingly comfortable because they were tailored individually to the wearer.

0=0=0=0

Walking along main street, Inanna noticed a deputy standing outside the sheriff's office watching the street. When the deputy's eyes fell on Inanna, she nodded a silent greeting as Inanna headed for the Demon's Head. There were a lot of people around, Inanna had lost track of her days so she couldn't decide whether this was a Saturday, a traditional day for people to come to town from outlying farms, or, if this was a market day. The other thing Inanna noticed was that she could see six or seven demons or various types from where she was standing. But, as no one seemed in anyway disturbed by these demon's presence, Inanna decided that she wouldn't do anything that would require her to go into 'fury mood' and start chopping things up. From her time in her homeland, Inanna knew that not all demons were 'bad'. In fact some liked living in the human lands and did their best to fit in, she decided that she'd wait to see what the local customs were before she did anything, if anything needed to be done.

0=0=0=0

Pushing her way through the saloon doors (again an almost exact copy of the swing doors seen in TV westerns), Inanna paused for a moment to let her eyes grow accustomed to the dark interior after the brightness of the sun lit street. The saloon's customers were all that you'd expect to find on a busy afternoon. There were farmers and ranchers their 'wives' and older daughters. There were farm and ranch hands, towns women, at least one professional gambler and there was even a woman playing a badly tuned piano off in one corner of the big room. Along one wall of the saloon was a long bar with two barkeeps pouring drinks and handing them to saloon girls in revealing outfits who wound their way through the crowd to deliver the drinks to the customers and receive payment.

Inanna found herself staring at one of the saloon girls who had the largest breasts she'd seen since she'd arrived in this part of the world, she was just wondering how the girl prevented herself from pooping right out of her costume when someone collided with Inanna from behind and almost sent her sprawling onto the dusty floor.

“Out of my way, tiny human!” rumbled a voice as Inanna regained her balance.

“Touch me again and you'll find out that all the best and toughest things come in small packages...” Inanna who was only a little over five feet tall and found herself looking up into the face of a demon.

The demon had to be at least seven maybe even eight feet tall and had skin the colour of polished mahogany. He had a large smooth head with a heavy jaw, a flat nose, pointed ears and incisors sticking out from between his thick, dark, brown lips. The monster wore a bright red sleeveless tunic with matching hose or very tight pants that disappeared into the tops of heavy, black boots. Around his waist he wore a wide leather belt from which hung a large, leather pouch and a cleaver-like sword that must have been designed to chop up really big monsters. Turning towards Inanna the demon looked down at her as a smile spread slowly across his face. 

“A fury?” the demon asked as he ran his eyes up and down Inanna's body, “A fury,” the demon's smile got wider to reveal large yellow teeth, “the gods must be smiling on me, for they have sent me a fury!”

“Yeah I'm a fury,” Inanna replied belligerently as she dropped her saddle bags and reached for her sword. 

“No!” the demon laughed as he noticed Inanna's hand start to move, “You misunderstand, I've been looking for a fury for some weeks...here,” the demon bowed to Inanna before gesturing to an empty table, “let me buy you a drink to apologies for my boorish behaviour...”

Inanna hesitated, she couldn't remember the last time she'd met such a polite demon.

“Erm...yeah...okay,” Inanna allowed the demon to lead her over to the table.

After they'd both sat down, the demon called over one of the saloon girls.

“What would you like to drink, fury...”

“Inanna...” Inanna introduced herself.

“Oh what a charmingly cute name!” exclaimed the demon; Inanna searched for any trace of sarcasm in the demon's words but found none, “So, what's your poison?”

“Lemonade please,” Inanna told the waitress.

“I can't temp you with something stronger?” the demon asked, “My name is Mivbaz, by the way, you can call me Miv or indeed Baz if you like.”

“Thanks, Miv or even Mivbaz, but strong drink and Inanna totally don't mix...”

When Inanna had arrived in the valley she'd tried the local cider, she'd rationalised that as it was only made out of apples and wasn't beer or spirits it couldn't be that strong and hey, she liked apple juice. Of course it only took one cider hangover to convince her to stick to lemonade in future.

“As you wish,” Mivbaz replied before ordering himself a quart of cider, “now let me once again apologies for almost knocking you down. I'm sorry but I was in a bad mood, fate has been conspiring against me of late.”

“Apology accepted,” Inanna looked up at the saloon girl as she delivered the drinks and winked at Inanna.

“Away girl,” Mivbaz laughed, “Mistress Inanna and I have things to discuss...”

“We do?” Inanna sipped at her lemonade, it was refreshingly lemony and not at all bitter, “Like what?”

“Like,” Mivbaz looked around to make sure no one was paying them any particular attention and leaned towards Inanna to whisper in her ear, “treasure...”

0=0=0=0

Many miles to the north of where Inanna sat, a tall, elegant woman stood in a totally impractical, long black, figure hugging ball gown in a dark, smoke stained cave. At her feet lay the bones of a human surrounded by various magical objects and the skeletons of several, very, dead goats.

“LIGHT!” the woman commanded and the cave was flooded by bright, magical light, “Well? The tall woman, who's name was Sister Samantha, demanded of her companion, a shorter woman with red hair dressed in a more practical outfit of black tunic and pants, “How did Sister Jessica die?”

“Sister Jessica appears to have been stabbed quite forcefully in the heart with one of her own sacrificial daggers,” replied the short red-head who's name was Sister Trinity.

“Hmmm...” Sister Samantha cast the remains of Sister Jessica a disdainful look as she bent to pick up a magic book and opened it at a marked page, “...our dearly departed sister appears to have been trying out some teleportation spells.”

“Yes,” nodded Sister Trinity, “that would fit in with what I've observed, and I seem to remember that our _dearly departed Sister_ was fascinated by the idea of bringing someone or something forward from The Time Before...”

“You don't think she succeeded, do you?” Samantha asked.

“I don't know about that,” Sister Trinity held up a charm and studied the patterns of light and colour it cast onto the cave wall, “but I will say that she succeeded in causing something to materialize which killed her...”

“You think its still out there?” Samantha waved in the general direction of the outside world.

“Probably,” agreed Trinity.

“Well, we can't have 'things' running around the countryside bragging about killing a Sister Sorceress of Mersept,” Samantha observed.

“Indeed not,” agreed Trinity as they headed for the cave exit, “where would it all end?”

Standing at the mouth of the outer cave the two sorceress' looked down the mountainside to where a path crossed a steam before heading off into the forest.

“We must track this miscreant down,” announced Samantha.

“And kill it, whatever 'it' might be?” Trinity asked.

“No dear sister,” Samantha smiled the most evil smile a human could, “death's too good for someone who has killed a Sister Sorceress of Mersept, I was thinking of something much more interesting.”

“Oh goodie!” giggled Trinity as she clapped her hands with glee.

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

Waking up in an unfamiliar bed, Inanna groaned as rosy fingered dawn drove a red-hot needle through her skull and into her brain. Rolling over on what appeared to be a very large mattress she began to open her eyes, with a cry of pain she closed them again and threw her arm across her face in an attempt to stop the light, streaming in through the window, from burning out her eyeballs. Groaning yet again she felt a little sick as a memory came to the forefront of her tortured brain.

Remembering how she'd almost been sent flying by the demon, Mivbaz, Inanna then remembered how he'd apologised and offered to buy her a drink. After a couple of glasses of lemonade the demon had persuaded her to try some of the local cider. Lying amid the rumpled sheets and blankets, Inanna desperately tried to remember what'd happened next. The smell of frying bacon assaulted her nose and caused her to try and open her eyes again. This time she managed to not only open her eyes but focus them as well. The sight on which she found her eyes had focused on was the big, brown butt of the demon guy as he stood at a stove further down the room dressed only in a black and white stripped apron, he was cooking breakfast.

This time Inanna whimpered as some more memories bubbled to the surface of her mind like rotting, corpses surfacing in a swamp; she could remember talking to the demon, something about a map and treasure. Then she remembered drinking more of the deceptively sweet cider. Next she remembered forgetting about maps and treasure as she drank more cider and her inhibitions faded away to nothing, then she remembered...

“Oh god...” Inanna cried as the full horror of what had happened the previous night finally sunk in.

“Good morning,” called the demon cheerfully as he turned to look down at Inanna, “breakfast?”

“You bastard!” Inanna cried forgetting how sore her brain was and winced at the sound of her own voice.

“So, you don't want breakfast?” the demon replied with infuriating good humour.

“No...yes! Whatever,” Inanna sat up in bed and realised for the first time she was naked, hurriedly she grabbed a sheet and tried to cover herself, “You...you got me drunk and the you...you forced me to...!”

The word Inanna was trying for was 'sex'; in her homeland women didn't have sex with human males let a lone demons.

“I'd hardly say forced,” the demon turned his back on Inanna and went back to working at the stove, he transferred bacon and eggs to two plates already piled high with large chunks of bread, “as I remember it you were pretty eager...”

“Why you...!” Inanna gathered the sheet more closely around her as she also gathered the full force of her righteous indignation about her.

“As I remember things,” Mivbaz continued to speak as he placed the two plates on a table and sat down in a chair that creaked under his weight, “it was all, 'please more' and 'harder' and 'faster' and 'no, no, don't stop'!”

“I never...” the memory of herself flat on her back with the demon lying between her widely spread legs bloomed in her mind like some stinking, malignant, flower, “Oh goddess...” she groaned as another vision on herself sitting astride the demon came clearly to her mind's eye, “Oh goddess...”

“I don't know why you're calling on this Oh-goddess,” Mivbaz had built himself a large bacon and egg sandwich and bit into it, egg yoke oozed from between the two slices of bread and down his chin.

This last sight proved too much for Inanna's alcohol abused stomach. Clamping a hand over her mouth she leapt from the bed, opened the window next to the bed, stuck her head outside and threw up. Coughing and spitting, Inanna had a final vision of her antics from the previous night, she clearly remembered taking the demon's penis in her mouth and... Once again her stomach rebelled and saved her from seeing the end of her memory as she dry heaved out of the window. Lying against the windowsill wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, she suddenly remember that she'd dropped the sheet in her hurry to get to the window and that she was stark, buck, naked and giving Mivbaz a no doubt fine view of her naked butt.

“Nice...” Mivbaz commented as if to confirm Inanna's worst fears, or he could have been talking about his sandwich, but Inanna didn't really think so.

Trying to cover her embarrassment with her hands, Inanna turned around and snatched up the sheet again before wrapping it around herself again.

“Where are my clothes?” she demanded as she moved on her knees back towards the bed.

“Oh...” Mivbaz swallowed before pointing to an item of Inanna's clothing, “...over there...and there...and there...and oh...there!”

Following the demon's pointing figure, Inanna saw her widely scattered clothing before scrambling over to the nearest pieces. Finding her panties and her under-shirt, Inanna put them on before she stood up. Luckily the under-shirt was quite long so it acted as a short skirt which hid her panties from Mivbaz's view.

“Coffee?” the demon picked up an overly large coffee pot and poured some of the hot, dark, liquid into a tin mug and pushed it towards Inanna's side of the table, “you must have hollow legs because I've never seen such a small human like yourself drink so much cider.”

“Oooooh!” Inanna groaned as she walked over to the table and slumped down on the spare chair, the table came up to her chest which made her feel like a little girl; however; the pounding in her head and the queasy feeling in her stomach reminded her she was a 'big' girl, “I'm such a slut...” she sighed.

“You've slept with demons before?” Mivbaz asked before taking a big mouthful of coffee.

“No, only girls,” Inanna admitted before adding, “and not so many of those either...”

“Oh dear, oh dear,” Mivbaz smirked from behind his coffee mug, “now why don't you eat something and drink some coffee it'll make you feel better, we've a lot to do today.”

“We do?” Inanna asked as she looked down at her rapidly congealing breakfast and realised how hungry she was; after taking a swing of hot coffee she wrapped a piece of bacon between a slice of bread and bit into it. “Goddess, that's good,” she sighed as she munched her way through the bread and bacon before attacking the eggs, “so what have we got to do...its not more sex is it?”

“Only if you want to,” Mivbaz smiled as he wiped up bacon grease and egg yoke with his last piece of bread, “But seriously we need to start making preparations and recruiting the rest of our party.”

“Preparations?” Inanna asked; thinking about what Mivbaz was talking about and eating was stopping her from remembering what she'd done the previous night; and some of the things she'd done she'd not realised she knew how to do!

“Yes for our expedition to the Great Round Lake...”

“The Great Round Lake?” Inanna repeated parrot-like.

“Uh-huh,” Mivbaz nodded his great head slowly, “the Great Round Lake where the treasure is...you don't remember any of this do you?”

“Erm...no...” Inanna shook her head wincing as she did so.

“Okay,” Mivbaz sighed heavily, took another big swallow of coffee, re-filled his mug and started to explain, “right, several weeks ago I came into possession of a map which detailed the route to...”

“The Great Round Lake,” Inanna interrupted, “I totally get the picture, there's a lake which is 'great' and kinda round.”

“There is an island in the middle of the lake and inside the island it is an ancient fort or mine full of treasures from the 'Time Before'.”

Inanna knew about the 'Time Before' or at least she thought she did. The locals talked of it as some sort of golden age when people lived in topless towers of glittering crystal and steel. When people had all sorts of wonders to make their lives easier and when men weren't all monsters. Of course this didn't last because something called 'The Others', Inanna could never work out whether this was some sort of intelligent, evil, beings or some kind of plague, tried to destroy the world (it depended on which stories you listened to). Of course this had all happened hundreds of years ago, how long ago depended on the stories you heard, but it was always 'a long time ago'. However, there were also persistent stories about caches of artefacts from those ancient times, usual described as hordes of gold and precious stones, fantastic weapons or weird machines that let you fly or carried you across the land and sea at fantastic speeds...of course Inanna didn't believe a word of it, but Mivbaz obviously believed some of it.

“Loads of treasure I'm guessing?” Inanna asked; Mivbaz nodded, “And I agreed to come with you to find this treasure?”

“You did,” again Mivbaz nodded, “in fact you seemed quite eager to get started.”

“Probably the cider talking,” Inanna looked down at her plate to find it empty, she reached for her coffee mug, “Okay, lets say I've got nothing better to do and I could do with the cash...” Inanna was always worried about her finances so, a little treasure would always come in useful, “...what's the plan?”

“Now I have you, a fury,” Mivbaz explained, “we'll also need someone versed in magic, a witch or a priestess...”

“Magic?” Inanna frowned.

“Yes, we'll need someone to make all the magical traps left behind by the ancient ones safe.”

“Okay, a witch or a priestess, what or who else?”

“A thief...”

“Ah...” Inanna smiled, this all sounded like that stupid dungeon her friend Ayasha liked to play, “...I bet she gets to deal with all the physical traps...so you've got me, a fighter and you want a magic user and a thief...so what do you do?”

“I'm the leader of course,” Mivbaz sounded a little hurt, “I also have the map and I have the start-up money.”

“Yeah, like what do I get? I mean what's my share of the treasure.”

“Traditionally, the treasure should be divided into ten shares,” Mivbaz explained, “because I'm the leader and have the map I'll get four shares. Each of my companions will get two shares each although,” the demon smiled down at Inanna, “if you agree to have more sex with me I'll give you a quarter share bonus out of my own share...”

“Erm...” Inanna smiled back at Mivbaz's hopeful grin, “...I don't think so.”

“Pity,” Mivbaz sighed sadly, “so, what do you think? Remember you did agree to all this last night...”

“I was drunk and I can't remember so it doesn't count,” Inanna snapped back.

“Whatever,” mumbled the demon like a teenager who'd been told he couldn't go out with his friends because he had to stay home and meet his Great Aunt Beatrice for dinner.

“Let me think...”

Inanna sat at the table and thought. Okay she had enough money, if she was careful, to last her a couple of months. But she didn't want to be careful and unexpected expenses always seemed to pop up at the most inconvenient times. Also there was no guarantee that there'd be any monsters to kill by the time she ran out of money. Yes, she could do a little bounty hunting and bring in a few human outlaws, but she didn't like doing that and she'd only done it out of a feeling of duty when she'd been asked. So, really she had nothing much to do and the chance of even two shares of a treasure would certainly give her finances a shot in the arm.

“Okay,” Inanna said after a couple of minutes, “I'll come along but with a couple of conditions...”

“Which are?” Mivbaz asked hopefully.

“First, I want a properly signed and witnessed contract.”

“Agreed,” Mivbaz nodded.

“Secondly...” Inanna paused for a moment, “...in case we don't find any treasure I want you to pay me five D'lahs a day there and back.”

“Two,” Mivbaz made his counter offer.

“Four,” Inanna countered his counter offer; they eventually agreed on three-and-a-half, to put this in context a ranch or farm hand got one D'lah a day plus food and board.

“And finally...no sex!”

“What none at all?” Mivbaz sounded really disappointed, “I could up the sex-bonus to a half of a share, you're good but you're not that good...”

“If I wasn't cutting you off anyway, I'd be insulted,” Inanna replied.

“As you wish,” Mivbaz shrugged, “but I think you've cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

“Whatever,” Inanna brought the subject to a close, “so where do we find a thief and a witch?”

“Easy,” Mivbaz stood up and started to clear the table, “the sheriff has a thief locked up in her jail, and there's at least three priestess' at the local temple, I'm betting one of them could be talked into coming with us.”

“So why can't you do the recruiting?” Inanna had got the feeling that Mivbaz was unwilling to approach either the sheriff or the head priestess.

“Well,” Mivbaz hesitated while he poured hot water from a kettle into a bowl and started to wash the dirty plates, “the sheriff is unlikely to hand even a thief over to a demon even such a pleasant demon like myself.”

“Yeah, now you mention it, I can see that,” Inanna agreed.

“And the head priestess won't talk to me or even let me into her temple.”

“Yeah, religious persecution,” Inanna shrugged, “its a bummer...so how come you, a demon aren't trying to kill us humans?”

“Never saw the point in it,” Mivbaz shrugged as he washed up the last plate and put it to drain, “as far as I'm concerned the world isn't all that bad as it is, why should I want to change anything.”

Turning around to face Inanna, Mivbaz took off his apron and Inanna remembered that it'd been the only thing he'd been wearing. Turning her head away, she asked...

“Bathroom? I'd like to clean up and finish getting dressed.”

“Down the corridor,” Mivbaz pointed to the door, “last door on the right...you can't miss it.”

0=0=0=0

About forty-five minutes later, Inanna was properly dressed, she had her sabre and knife securely thrust into the sash around her waist and her purse safely in her pocket. Walking down main street towards the sheriff's office with Mivbaz by her side, Inanna noticed that the townswomen weren't giving her a second glance. Obviously Mivbaz was a well know figure in town, at about seven feet tall he'd be very hard to miss. Strolling up to the sheriff's office, Inanna paused to read the notices pinned to the wall of the building. There were the usual 'Wanted' posters, detailing the crimes of several outlaws and the rewards offered for their death or capture, everyone seemed to be wanted 'dead or alive'. Memorising the faces shown in the sketches out of habit, Inanna moved on to read the single public notice pinned to the board.

The printed notice proclaimed that the thief, Erika Rivers would be receiving seventy-five lashes in the public square at noon. The notice encouraged spectators to bring their own packed lunch and join in the 'fun'.

“Not good,” Inanna looked up into Mivbaz's face; just then movement caught her eye and she shifted her gaze to where three women rode into town. 

Turning to look at the wanted posters again and then back to the riders, she recognised the leader of the group as 'Black Dot' the infamous bank robber.

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

“Bank robbers,” Inanna whispered as she pointed over to where the three desperadoes were bringing their horses to a halt outside what looked like the town's only bank.

“What?” Mivbaz looked down at his companion, a puzzled frown on his great brown face.

“Bank robbers,” Inanna repeated in a louder whisper, there was a good two feet, probably more, between Inanna's mouth and Mivbaz's pointy ears so it wasn't surprising that he had difficulty hearing her when she whispered.

“Where?”

“There,” Inanna pointed across the street, the women where now dismounting while at the same time looking up and down the street checking it for danger.

“So?” Mivbaz shrugged his great shoulders.

“There going to rob the bank,” Inanna replied, her hand going to the hilt of her sabre.

“Nothing to do with us,” Mivbaz explained with another massive shrug.

“But...!”

“Look,” Mivbaz sighed heavily and placed his fists on his hips as he turned to look down at Inanna, “we're here to get us a thief, _not_ to get involved with bank robbers.”

“But...” Inanna tried again to explain why bank robberies were 'bad' and how they should attempt to stop them from happening.

“Typical, fury,” Mivbaz tutted with a shake of his head, “always sticking their noses in where they're not wanted or refusing to believe that they willingly, even eagerly, had sex with a demon all night long,” he added in a loud mutter.

“Look...” Inanna was about to put the demon right about the entire 'sex thing' when the door to the sheriff's office slammed open and the sheriff burst out onto the sidewalk followed by two of her deputies.

“Now you've done it,” again Mivbaz shook his head, this time in sorrow.

“What?” Inanna squeaked, “What do you mean, now I've done it?”

Further conversation was put on a temporary hold as the three law officers, long slim swords on their hips and revolvers, cocked and loaded, in their hands advanced across the street towards the would-be robbers.

“Hold it right there!” called the sheriff as her deputies spread out in a line behind her.

“Now look what you've done,” Mivbaz said as he pulled Inanna into the cover of a large water butt.

“What I've done?” Inanna snapped as she was pulled behind the barrel.

“Yes!” hissed Mivbaz, “You...”

Mivbaz didn't get to say anything more because the relative quiet of the street was shattered by a very loud 'BOOM!'. A great cloud of dirty white smoke erupted from between the robber's horses as the sheriff was tossed across the street like a blood soaked piece of rag.

“A gun!” Mivbaz cried as he crouched down behind the barrel next to Inanna.

“A gun?” during her time in this land, Inanna had heard of guns but until today she'd never seen one; in her homeland guns were incredibly rare and Inanna had never really seen the point of them.

The deputies stopped dead in their tracks at the sound of the gun 's report, they turned their heads to where the body of the sheriff lay in an expanding pool of blood. Next they looked at each other, dropped their revolvers and ran as fast as their legs could carry them down the street. The hushed expectancy of the post sheriff slayage was broken only by a solitary giggle. Peering over the top of her barrel Inanna saw Black Dot sniggering, she was a tall woman, over six feet tall with a physique to match, her huge breasts wobbled like a couple of oversized jellies as she giggled at the sheriff's demise. Turning away from where the dead sheriff lay, she started towards the bank.

“Come on girls,” Black Dot called to her confederates, “chores to do.”

It was only then that Inanna noticed the family resemblance between the robbers; the two lesser robbers were almost as tall as Black Dot, with the same hair colour, facial features and bra size. Black Dot led one of her 'daughters' towards the bank as the third robber watched the street and reloaded her gun. The gun was a very simple looking weapon, little more than a metal pipe attached to a wooden stock, it didn't even appear to have a trigger.

“We've got to do something,” Inanna said as she drew her sabre.

“I agree,” Mivbaz nodded as he pulled his meat cleaver like sword from its scabbard, “we must have that gun.”

“What!?” Inanna cried disappointedly, she'd actually thought that Mivbaz had developed some civic responsibility.

“Look, a gun like that would be very useful where we're going,” the demon explained.

“Whatever,” Inanna shrugged and sighed, “look, you go after gun toting Annie and I'll take out big Dot and her other daughter, okay?”

“How did you know the one with the gun was called Annie?” Mivbaz gave her a puzzled look.

“Oh, give me strength,” Inanna implored any goddess' that might be listening, “You ready?” Mivbaz nodded, “Right when I give the signal you take out gun-girl and I'll...”

“AAAAAAGH!” roared Mivbaz as he stood up and started to charge across the street at the girl with the gun.

“NO!” Inanna stood up to watch helplessly as the demon she'd started to really quite like ran towards the muzzle of the canon held in the young woman's all too steady hands.

Running across the street at an angle of about forty-five degrees from the course that Mivbaz had taken, Inanna reached the cover of the front door of a shoe shop just as the hand canon went off. For a moment Mivbaz was wreathed in the same dirty white smoke as when the sheriff had been killed. However, much to Inanna's surprise, Mivbaz appeared out of the smoke apparently none the worst for his experience. The demon roared and lifted his cleaver-like sword as the girl screamed, cast away her gun and tugged desperately at the hilt of her own sword. Taking advantage of all the confusion, Inanna ran along the boardwalk towards the front of the bank. Just as she reached the bank's door she heard a woman's scream which was almost immediately cut off by a wet sounding 'THUNK!'. Turning she was just in time to get a spray of blood directly in her face.

“EWWW!” Inanna cried as she watched Mivbaz pull the blade of his weapon from the almost cut in half body of the robber.

Quickly wiping some of the blood from her face with her hand, Inanna turned and yanked open the door to the bank. The first thing she saw was the dead body of a bank guard lying on the floor. The next thing she saw was Black Dot's remaining daughter turn to confront her, sword in hand. Parrying the young woman's lunge Inanna struck back and buried her blade in the girl's stomach. Pulling her sword from the robber's gut, she turned just in time to avoid the axe head that cleaved the air in the spot she'd until recently occupied. Back peddling away from the ferocious attack launched by Black Dot, Inanna noticed that the front of her jacket had in fact been cut by the razor sharp edge of the axe.

“Hey!” Inanna cried out in surprise, “That's my best jacket...that's my only jacket!”

Leaping towards the giant of a woman, Inanna was surprised to find her first attack blocked by the woman's axe. Darn, she thought, this woman was not only strong, she was fast as well, but not as strong and fast as she was. Dodging the next couple of axe attacks, Inanna got close enough to thrust with her sabre. The first six inches of Inanna's sabre went through the flesh and bone just below Dot's left breast and on into her lung. Looking up from her mortal wound, Dot looked in surprised shock at the short blonde who'd killed her before falling slowly to her knees. Pulling her blade free, Inanna brought it back before bringing it down and around to cut off Dot's head. The giant woman's head bounced across the floor as blood gushed from her neck to splatter onto the floor like thick, red, rain. Jumping back so she wouldn't get any more blood on her clothes than she had already, Inanna watched as Dot's body slowly toppled over to lie on the floor next to her head.

Everything was quiet for a moment until the tableau was broken by the sound of a woman's sob. Looking up Inanna found herself the centre of attention of about a dozen women, the customers and bank staff who'd been caught up in the robbery gone bad. Smiling self-consciously, Inanna turned towards the door only to find her exit blocked by the great grinning form of Mivbaz. He clutched the gun in one hand and a leather satchel in the other, his chest was punctured by a dozen or so holes from which dark red blood oozed.

“Come on,” Mivbaz called, seemingly unaffected by his injuries said, “no time to lolligag about and gorp at the corpses we've gotta get to the jail.”

“Why?” Inanna asked as she ran off across the street after the demon, but not before she'd paused to pick up the sheriffs discarded revolvers.

“The sheriff's dead,” Mivbaz explained, “her deputies have run off, and we need a thief!”

“Huh?” Inanna followed Mivbaz across the street not knowing exactly what the big demon was suggesting.

After running across the street and around the bodies, Inanna followed Mivbaz into the sheriff's office. Coming to a halt she looked around to see an office almost exactly like any other sheriff's office. There only where rifles, pistols, swords, bows and even crossbows (obviously for shooting vampires). As she pocketed a couple of boxes of ammunition for her newly acquired pistols, she noted the complete lack of thieves, however there was a door leading to another room behind the office.

Just as Inanna started towards the door way, her passage was blocked by an older woman with grey hair and a wooden peg leg. In her hand she clutched an odd looking crossbow and over her shoulder hung a battered old bugle. Instead of a normal bolt, the crossbow held a small metal ball about two or three inches across with short, sharp, spikes sticking out of it, the woman was struggling to light the fuse that protruded from the little bomb from the end of her cigar. Almost before Inanna had time to react, Mivbaz reached forward and hit the woman on the top of her head with his fist. The old woman's eyes rolled up into her head as she crumpled to the floor.

“Grab the crossbow and bombs,” Mivbaz ordered as he pushed past Inanna and headed through the door the woman had been guarding.

Kneeling next to the recumbent woman, Inanna checked her pulse before taking her crossbow, the woman was simply unconscious and would probably wake up in an hour or two with a really bad headache. Searching the woman she couldn't find anymore spiky bombs, but she did see a large leather bag lying on a nearby table. Standing up she went over to the table and opened the bag to discover a couple of dozen bombs resting there like a bag full of spiky eggs.

After placing her purloined revolvers and ammunition into the bag she heaved it over her shoulder, Inanna saw that she was in fact in the jail part of the jail. Over to her right, Mivbaz was searching through a bunch of keys looking for the right one to open the cell door which contained a pretty girl, who looked no older than Inanna, in fact the girl could've been mistaken for Inanna if it wasn't for her short, honey blonde hair and the fact that she was a good nine inches taller than the fury. The girl was sobbing loudly as she tried to get as far away from the demon as her cell would allow.

“Please don't eat me Mr Demon,” sobbed the girl tearfully.

“Inanna, give me a hand here,” Mivbaz called as he threw the keys to one side in frustration.

Hurrying over Inanna stood next to Mivbaz and grabbed hold of the bars to the cell, they both heaved on the bars bending them out of shape and making a hole big enough for the girl to climb through. However, the girl still hesitated, Inanna held out her hand to the girl.

“Come with me if you don't want to get those seventy-five lashes.”

“You're human?” the girl, who indeed was Erika Rivers asked.

“Red blooded,” Inanna nodded.

“And you're not going to feed me to your demon?”

“Nope,” Inanna shook her head, “but times awasting here, like, lets totally move.”

“Okay,” Erika's tears suddenly dried up as she squeezed through the bars, “you know I could have broken out of here by myself...”

“Then why didn't you?” Inanna asked as she pulled the girl after her towards the office, “Where you waiting to be whipped, do you like that sorta thing?”

“Depends who's doing the whipping,” smirked the girl.

“Oh goddess,” Inanna sighed heavily, “I'm surrounded by weirdos.”

0=0=0=0

Many miles further north from Rosy, a demon demon screamed in pain as it was held down by half a dozen War-pigs. Pulling the iron dagger from the smoking wound in the demon's chest, Ozzy, the War-pig leader, turned to look at his mistress waiting to be told what to do next.

“Do you think he's telling us all he knows?” Sister Samantha asked the War-pig officer.

Ozzy grunted in the affirmative. Sister Samantha turned to her friend Sister Trinity and asked a silent question, receiving the reply she'd expected she turned back to the War-pig and spoke.

“Kill it...” Samantha smiled evilly, “...slowly. It'll teach people and demons not to run out on a Sister Sorceress of Mersept!”

Turning away as the demon screamed in agony as the War-pigs started to cut it into handy bite sized pieces, Sister Samantha signed in disappointment, she'd really hoped to learn more but the demon was pretty stupid and she was confident that the simple creature had told her all it knew.

“Sounds like Sister Ashlee to me,” Trinity said.

“Its certainly sounds like her style,” Samantha agreed, “I wonder what she was trying to achieve?”

“If I know Ashlee,” Trinity said, “probably eternal youth and beauty.”

“You're probably right,” Samantha nodded, “such a waste...”

“Ashlee you mean?”

“No,” Samantha shook her head, “she was nothing but a simple bimbo with her big tits and long hair and a tight body and...”

“Sister!” Trinity called, she'd noticed just a hint of jealousy creeping into her friend's voice, “Focus on the job in hand and remember, whatever your personal feelings about Sister Ashlee she was sill a Sister and her death must be avenged.”

“You're right of course,” Samantha agreed, “but its still a waste to sacrifice perfectly good children just so she wouldn't get a zit...”

“I know what you mean,” Trinity agreed, “I mean some of them would have made good sex slaves in a few of years time...”

“And there's many more important spells the others could have been sacrificed for,” Samantha pointed out.

“Oh, well,” Trinity sighed, “no use crying over dead sacrifices...”

“I never do...” Samantha gave her friend a puzzled look.

“Whatever,” Trinity drew a line under that part of the conversation, “so what have we learnt?”

“That in all probability Sister Jessica brought a fury forward from the 'Time Before', who then killed Sister Ashlee,” Samantha gave the short version of what the two Sorceress' had discovered by using forensic magic and torturing anybody they met who might have come into contact with the past time fury.

“If this is one of the ancient furies of legend...” Trinity began.

“Then she must be a particularly powerful fury,” Samantha said what Trinity had been thinking.

“Perhaps with magical powers of her own,” Trinity continued.

“Just what was Sister Jessica trying to do...get us all killed?” Samantha demanded.

“Well,” Trinity shrugged, “she _was_ completely insane...”

“True,” Samantha agreed, “she should have been 'retired' years ago.”

“We'll have to track this fury down and kill her,” Trinity said quietly.

“Indeed...” Samantha looked back to where the War-pigs were still cutting up the now silent and very dead demon, “...I think we're gonna need a bigger demon.”

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

After all the excitement of thwarting bank robberies and conducting jail breaks, Inanna, Mivbaz and Erika made their way back to Mivbaz's home. He lived in some rooms attached to the back of a disused stable or warehouse on the outskirts of town. It was quite secluded as people rarely visited the area believing it was haunted. Once back in Mivbaz's living room, Erika eyed her two saviours warily.

“Okay,” Erika backed up against the wall nearest the windows so she could keep both Inanna and Mivbaz in front of her, “thanks for saving me from seventy-five lashes an'all but what do you want with me...this isn't some sort of kinky sex thing is it?”

“No,” Inanna replied as she put down her weapons and picked at her blood stained and damaged jacket.

“Pity...” Erika sighed disappointedly.

“What?” Inanna frowned before looking at Mivbaz, “This was your idea you explain to her...”

Dismissing Mivbaz and Erika from her mind for the moment, Inanna started to pull off her jacket as she walked over to the sink where there was a water pump. The problem with fighting with bladed weapons was that blood got sprayed all over the place. It got in your hair, on your skin (although this was supposed to be good for the complexion but Inanna wasn't buying that) and worst of all it got on your clothes. If you didn't wash it out with cold water pretty damn quick it would stain. Holding up her jacket, Inanna saw that not only was it covered in bank robber's blood there was also a big cut in the material from where Black Dot had almost killed her with her axe.

“Ruined...” Inanna huffed, she'd liked that jacket, now she'd have to buy a new one.

Looking down at herself Inanna saw that there was blood on her white under shirt as well as a rip which matched up with the one in the front of her jacket, she sighed in disappointment.

“I suppose I could sew that up after I've washed it,” Inanna muttered as she reached for the handle of the water pump.

“Inanna,” Mivbaz called over from where he was sitting at the table with Erika, “Erika's agreed to join us...”

“Good,” Inanna turned to look over her shoulder, “you explained about the two tenths shares and the sex bonus?”

“Sex bonus?” Erika said hopefully.

“A joke,” Mivbaz gave Inanna a dark look before adding, “a private joke between myself and the fury.”

“You're a fury?” Erika asked excitedly, “That's so cool...an' why are you taking your clothes off, is this something to do with the sex bonus thing?”

“No,” Inanna having kicked off her boots was removing her breaches, “I'm covered in blood and it'll stain if I don't rinse them in cold water.”

“Oh...” once again Erika sounded disappointed.

“Never mind that,” Mivbaz said as he stood up and strode over to a large wooden closet and opened the door, “I have lots of human clothing, both of you help yourselves. We need to go out and buy supplies and you two need to be in disguise...”

“Wow!” Erika gasped as she looked at all the clothes Mivbaz had had hidden away, falling on the clothes like a starving woman attacking an all you can eat buffet she started to pull outfits from the closet and hold them up to herself as she tried to decide what to wear.

At the same time Inanna walked over to look in the closet all the while wondering where a very large demon had acquired so many human clothes. Dressed only in her underwear, Inanna noticed Mivbaz looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Producing a small punch dagger from her bra Inanna smiled at the demon, but not in a nice way.

“I'd look somewhere else if you don't wanna lose that eye,” she informed the demon, who quickly looked away and started to watch Erika as she got undressed, “whatever,” Inanna sighed when she noticed what the demon was looking at now.

If she was honest with herself, Inanna also felt just a slight twinge of desire as she watched Erika trying on different items of clothing. The girl thief was about nine inches taller than her with a figure that you might describe as firm and athletic, in fact it was so firm and athletic that Inanna had to turn away and concentrate on her new bomb throwing crossbow for a moment. Eventually telling herself that standing around in only her underwear probably wasn't helping she moved in on the pile of clothes that lay on the floor around Erika's feet and picked out a couple of items that looked as if they might fit her.

Five minutes later Inanna was dressed in a long, dark grey, skirt with a simple white linen shirt on over it tied at her waist with a finely tooled leather belt with a silver buckle. On her feet she wore her riding boots and attached to her belt she had a wide bladed dagger. In her new clothes she looked for all the world like a well-to-do farmer, the effect was reinforced when she covered her hair with a head scarf. Erika on the other hand looked like the slutty sister of a well-to-do farmer. Wearing a very short skirt in an eye watering shade of orangey-red with a matching top that seemed to show more flesh than it covered, her outfit was completed by a pair of high heeled sandals and a large shoulder bag.

“Okay,” Mivbaz, who'd changed into a very rustic version of the clothes he'd worn when Inanna had first met him, explained, “if anyone asks Inanna is a farmer and you Erika are her daughter...”

“DAUGHTER!?” Inanna and Erika cried out in chorus.

“Okay then sister,” Mivbaz shrugged his shoulders, he'd never understand humans, “I'm you farm labourer,” he continued, “we're new to the area and we've come into town for supplies.”

“Erm...” Erika held up her hand to attracted Mivbaz's attention, not that she really had to in the outfit she was wearing, “...can we swing by my room so I can pick up my pack?”

“If its not too dangerous,” Inanna said before Mivbaz had a chance to speak.

“Yes I expect so,” the demon grumbled.

“Cool,” Erika sighed with relief, “my pack's got all my lock picks in it I don't wanna lose them!”

“Whatever,” Inanna shrugged before turning to Mivbaz, “you have got money for everything right?”

“More than enough,” Mivbaz nodded, “now I think we should be on our way.”

0=0=0=0

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” screamed the woman as she writhed in agony on the table where Sister Samantha had had the War-pigs nail her; Ozzy was doing something really unpleasant to her with a knife.

“So,” Samantha leaned back in the kitchen chair she was sitting on, “this fury, what did she look like?”

“P...please stop hurting me,” begged the woman, “I...I'll tell you everything...I know.”

Nodding to Ozzy, Samantha smiled as the farm woman screamed again.

“If you'd just get on and tell me what I want to know,” Samantha said reasonably, “all this could stop.”

Very quickly the farm woman gave Samantha a fairly good description of Inanna.

“Good,” the sorceress smiled, “see that wasn't so difficult...” she looked at Ozzy who was standing next to the table polishing his knife, “...finish her.”

Standing up, Samantha walked from the farm house as the woman's renewed screams of agony echoed in her ears. Coming out into the day light, she smiled as she saw her friend, Trinity walk away from the barn wiping blood from her hands, she'd been torturing the older children. The two women swapped descriptions.

“Good,” Samantha's smile got wider, “now we know who we're looking for.”

“Indeed,” agreed Sister Trinity, “and she's only a few weeks ahead of us.”

“We'll soon catch up,” Samantha reassured her friend, “it sounds as if this fury wasn't in a rush to go anywhere so we'll soon catch her.”

“Hmmmm,” Trinity pondered as the two Sorceress' moved away from the house and the barn so their conversation wouldn't have to compete with the screams coming from the buildings as the War-pigs cut up more rations for the trip.

“Hmmm?” inquired Samantha.

“I was thinking...why isn't this fury from the past in a hurry to go anywhere?”

“She's probably confused,” Samantha suggested.

“True,” Trinity agreed, “but strange things don't happen to furies without a reason.”

“Ah yes,” Samantha nodded, “you think there might be a deeper reason why everything has happened as it has?”

“I do,” Trinity nodded; the screams from the house and the barn had stopped now, “it sounds like the Pigs have finished their work.”

“Then we better be moving on Sister.”

“Indeed,” agreed Trinity.

0=0=0=0

Having bought food and other useful equipment from the general store on main street, the mismatched group of would-be adventurers moved on to the livery stable where they hired pack-horses and pack saddles. Strangely the woman in charge of the livery stable didn't recognise Inanna, in fact she hardly gave her a second glance and spoke almost exclusively to Mivbaz. Inanna started to suspect that there was some minor magic being used. Having completed their purchases for the day they swung by The Laughing Fury saloon where Erika had her rooms and collected her pack and other possessions before heading back to Mivbaz's home.

Once back at Mivbaz's liar, the demon busied himself cooking the evening meal. The demon seemed to enjoy cooking which was fine by Inanna, she was the first to admit that her own cooking abilities left a lot to be desired. Happy to let Mivbaz get on preparing the meal she sat down at the table with Erika and some milk and cookies.

“So what's your story?” Inanna asked as she pushed the plate of cookies towards the younger woman.

“Okay,” Erika picked up a cookie and nibbled at the edge of it before committing herself to biting into the cookie properly, “I think I'm about sixteen or seventeen, least ways that's what Ma' Clare told me...”

“Clare?” Inanna asked.

“Yeah,” Erika shrugged, “she was the woman who found me an' looked after me.”

“Okay...” Inanna said slowly, “...back up a little and totally start from the beginning.”

“I don't remember my real moms much,” Erika explained, “but I do remember we lived on a farm and I remember that the Injuns...”

“Injuns?”

“The savage women who live up in the hills,” Erika informed Inanna, “when they're not fuckin' demons they're raidin' and killin' real people.”

“Oh...!” Inanna felt just a twinge of guilt considering what had happened between herself and Mivbaz the previous night.

“Anyway,” Erika went on with her story, “I hid an' managed to get away into the forest without bein' seen by any of those blood thirsty, demon lovin', savages.”

“So, how old were you then?” Inanna wanted to know.

“Maybe four or five,” Erika shrugged.

“So what happened next?”

“I musta wondered through the forest 'til, Ma' Clare found me,” Erika smiled sadly at the memory, “I think she only meant to take me to the next settlement, but, she didn't an' I ended up stayin' with her 'til she was killed.”

“Killed?” Inanna frowned, “So, what did this Ma' Clare do to get herself killed.”

“Oh nothin' much,” Erika shrugged, “ya see Ma' Clare was a professional gambler, she could read a pack o' cards and the other players like a book,” the girl grinned with pride, “she also knew stuff like how to pick a lock an' she taught me everything she knew...like, we used to do this thing where I'd pretend to be an exotic dancer an' get some rich merchant to go to bed with me. Then just before me an' the mark would get down to business, Ma' Clare would burst inta the room, bop the mark on the back of her head then we'd steal her stuff!”

“Wow...” Inanna gasped, “...and how old were you when you started doing this?”

“Oh...” Erika thought for a moment, “I musta been about twelve or thirteen...probably thirteen,” she added quickly when she noticed the shocked look on Inanna's face, “nothin' ever happen,” she tried to reassure Inanna, “Ma' Clare always burst in before the mark could really even start to do anythin'.”

“Yeah, but...”

“Anyway we had to make enough money to live on,” Erika pointed out the hard facts of life.

“You said Ma' Clare got killed,” Inanna tried to get the conversation back on track again.

“Yeah we was up in Vancover...”

“Vancover?”

“Yeah, the one way up north were its always cold,” Erika explained, “me an' Ma' Clare was tryin' ta scam this slaver...”

“Slaver?”

“Yeah, okay they call them 'indentured workers', but they're really slaves coz they never get to earn enough to buy their freedom,” Erika pointed out as Inanna realised what a terrible land she'd ended up in. “Okay if they get sold to a farmer or a rancher things ain't too bad for 'em, but this bitch used to sell girls to demons.”

It was about at this point Inanna decided she'd make it her life's work to stamp out slavery in this part of the world. Her own homeland didn't have slaves or slavers to sell women to demons.

“Anyway, we was just getting to the 'sting', when this bitch of a slaver burst in with a couple of demons,” Erika's voice took on a hard edge, “they killed Ma' Clare right there and then, didn't even give her a chance to talk her way out of it. I got out through the window an' ran for my life,” tears trickled down Erika's face, “Ya gotta understand I couldn't have saved her, they'd justa killed me too, least this way I might be able to go back an' kill the bitch later...”

“Yeah, I get that,” Inanna reached across the table and took one of Erika's hands in her own and squeezed it; she knew how the girl must feel, she'd lost more than enough friends in her own short life.

“Anyway,” Erika continued having wiped the tears from her eyes, “I headed south as fast as my horse would carry me, then I went into business for myself.”

“So how did you get caught by the sheriff?”

“Bad luck,” Erika shrugged, “I was breakin' inta the back of one of the shops on main street when one of the deputies grabbed me an' hauled me off to jail...” Erika's eyes roamed the room, “...hey, where do we sleep? I only see the one bed.”

“We have to share,” Inanna explained with a shrug.

“With the demon?” Erika sounded horrified.

“Don't worry,” Inanna sighed accepting the inevitable, “I'll sleep between you and Mivbaz, you'll be quite safe, remember I'm a fury.”

“Okay,” Erika didn't sound convinced, but her face soon lit up when Mivbaz served up their food.

After eating, the three adventurers discussed plans for their journey to The Great Round Lake, Mivbaz even produced his treasure map. Erika examined it and announced that as far as she could tell it was genuine and not a recent knock off. They talked late into the evening until Mivbaz said that they'd talked enough.

“Tomorrow, Inanna,” Mivbaz said as he stood up and went over to a closet, “you must go to the temple and recruit us a priestess, but tonight,” the demon appeared to have found what he was looking for, “I think its time for a little fun...”

Walking back to the table, Mivbaz placed a shot glasses in front of Inanna and Erika and one for himself then he produced a bottle of Apple schnapps and poured a measure into each glass.

“A toast,” Mivbaz raised his glass, “may fortune smile on us!”

Raising the glass to her lips Inanna tossed back the schnapps in one gulp, after which her memories became just a little...hazy.

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

“Oh no not again...” Inanna groaned as she rolled over on Mivbaz's bed and mentally added Apple Schnapps to the list of things that she _really, really_ shouldn't drink.

This morning, as the sun vindictively filled the room with light, Inanna felt sure that there was someone inside her head hitting the inside of her skull with a large, heavy hammer. There were also the vivid memories of what had happened last night after she'd gone to bed. Finishing her slow roll, she cracked open an eye before gasping in surprise as Mivbaz's big, brown face swam into focus, he was grinning at her in that really annoying way that some people do when they've caught you doing something you shouldn't.

“Good morning,” Mivbaz smiled innocently.

“Oh god...” Inanna groaned louder.

“This is something I find strange about you, Fury Inanna...”

“What's that?” Inanna croaked, her mouth felt like the bottom of a parrot's cage.

“After a night of, quite frankly, inventive sex you always invoke this 'Oh-god'.”

“Inventive sex?” Inanna frowned, her memories, which were now coming back to her in full and glorious colour complete with sound, didn't match up with the face that was at present so intently studying hers, “Huh...?”

Unable to watch Mivbaz's slightly mocking face for a second longer, Inanna rolled over and was immediately enfolded in a passionate embrace. Before she could fight off the amorous octopus that had some how joined the demon and herself in bed, she found her lips being crushed against someone else's as hands too small to be Mivbaz's caressed her breasts before one of them slipped down her body to come to a halt between her legs, feeling a finger tip slip inside her Inanna managed to free herself from the human octopus' clutches and pushed the creature away.

“OH GOD!” Inanna cried, “Stop that!”

“That's not what you said last night,” Erika replied sounding a little hurt, “then it was all, 'Oh yes baby that's the spot', and 'do me harder', and 'make me come again!'...” Erika turned her face away from Inanna and surreptitiously wiped at her eyes, “...I though you loved me.”

“She was the same the first time she had sex with me,” Mivbaz rumbled as he got out of bed.

“You had sex with a demon!” Erika gasped as she stared down at Inanna's naked body.

“Sort of...” Inanna replied weakly, she really wished people would stop shouting.

“EWWWWWWW!” Erika ewww-ed with some feeling and a lot of volume.

“One minute she can't get enough,” Mivbaz explained as he got out of bed and both young women saw that he had _more_ than enough, “then she denies everything and she starts calling on this Oh-god deity.”

“Hey!” something had occurred to Inanna as Mivbaz got out of bed, “Were you in bed when Erika and I were...you know...when we were...”

“Makin' out?” Erika supplied as she too got up out of bed.

“Uh-huh,” Inanna looked from Erika to Mivbaz and back again.

“Of course,” Mivbaz shrugged, “where was I supposed to sleep?”

“You mean you where in the same bed while Inanna and I where...?”

“Yes,” nodded the big demon.

“EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!” Ewww-ed Erika once more and with even more volume than before.

“Oh don't worry,” Mivbaz waved away Erika's obvious horror with the wave of a giant hand, “watching humans rub their clits together does nothing for me.”

“EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!” Ewww-ed Inanna and Erika in harmony.

“What's wrong with you?” Mivbaz shrugged before turning away to put some fresh coffee on the stove, “humans...” he muttered, “...you can't live with them and you can't kill them all...”

“Erika...” Inanna turned her head so she was looking at the young thief, “I'm...”

“You!” Erika pointed an accusing finger at Inanna, “Don't you ever touch me again!”

Turning her back on Inanna the girl rushed out of the room slamming the door behind her as she did so.

“Ouch!” Inanna winced as she let her head drop down onto the pillows, at least things were quieter now and in an hour or two she might find the strength to get up.

“You'll need to go to the local temple and recruit a priestess today if we want to start out tomorrow...coffee's ready,” Mivbaz placed his big coffee pot on the table along with some mugs before going back to the stove to begin cooking breakfast.

“Why can't you and Erika go?” Inanna wanted to know, two nights of too much sex and way too much alcohol were beginning to take their toll on her and to be honest she'd be happy to sleep the day away.

“The head priestess would try to kill me on sight,” Mivbaz explained as bacon started to sizzle, “demon see?”

“Oh yeah...” now she thought about it Inanna realised that she was starting to see Mivbaz as a person and not a demon, “Oh well, I suppose I should totally get up,” her bladder was reminding her it was full and the bacon smelled really good.

Just then Erika burst back into the room, still naked, she started to pick up her clothes from around the room and put them on.

“Finished with the bathroom?” Inanna asked and got a grunt in reply which she took to mean 'yes'.

Finding herself at the edge of the bed, Inanna looked over the side and found her clothes, if not in a neat pile then at least in one place. Getting out of bed she picked up her clothes and headed for the bathroom. Closing the bathroom door behind her she sat down and emptied her bladder with a relieved sigh. Now that pressing business was completed, she could concentrate on what a bad person she was while she bathed and drove the last few hammer wielding demons out of her head. Telling herself that she shouldn't let Mivbaz get her drunk, she next started to feel bad about what Erika and herself had done...in bed...while the demon looked on.

“Yeah, sure,” Inanna muttered as she let the water from the bucket above the big tin bath wash away her sins, “don't get anything outta watching girls make out, huh? If that's true he must be the only demon in history who doesn't.”

0=0=0=0

Breakfast that morning was mostly eaten in silence apart from Erika's cry of outrage when she discovered that she'd have to go with Inanna to find a priestess.

“Why do I have to go with _her_?” Erika demanded.

“It'll look more convincing,” Mivbaz explained, “and Inanna isn't very convincing when she's telling a tall tale to get a priestess to come with us into the wilderness.”

“Then I'll go by myself,” Erika said, “I can talk anyone into anything.”

“Ah,” Mivbaz smiled between slurps of coffee, “but Inanna, being a fury, will add respectability to any story you think up.”

“Why don't we just tell the truth?” Inanna asked only to find her two companions looking at her as if she'd turned bright blue.

“What!?” Erika exclaimed, “Share any treasure we find with the church!?” she gasped in horror at the very idea, “No way am I giving those money grabbing bitches one brass penny!”

“I have to say I agree with our young friend,” Mivbaz gestured to Erika, “the price for the church's co-operation is usually far too high.”

“Okay, if you say so...” Inanna replied as she finished her breakfast and to be honest she was too tiered to argue.

0=0=0=0

“So,” Inanna broke the silence that was hanging like a cloud between herself and Erika as they headed along main street towards the temple, “what are going to say to get a priestess to come with us?”

“Never you mind,” Erika replied, “you don't have to say anything, just stand there an' look all fury-like and if you do have to speak just follow my lead and...”

Interrupted by the sight and sound of a priestess half running, half falling from the door of the temple, Erika stopped dead in her tracks. The priestess stumbled down the steps and fell onto the dusty ground almost at Inanna's feet. Before either Inanna or Erika could think of something to say or do, a second and older priestess appeared at the door with a spear in her hand which she promptly threw at the recumbent priestess.

“AND DON'T COME BACK!” the older priestess yelled as she took a step towards the fallen priestess and noticed the two young women standing in shock before the temple, “Fury! KILL ME THAT DANGEROUS HERITIC!”

The older priestess' voice was so commanding that Inanna's hand was half way to the hilt of her sabre before she even realised it was moving. Stopping herself from drawing her blade, Inanna looked down at the priestess, she looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties, she had dark brown hair and a trickle of blood ran down the side of her face from a cut just above her left eye.

“HERETIC!?” the downed priestess yelled back, “HERETIC AM I? YOU'LL LEARN AND ON THAT DAY I'LL...”

“This is obviously what passes as reasoned debate in the religious community,” Erika observed preventing Inanna from hearing what the priestess was yelling about.

“Totally...” Inanna agreed with a nod; thinking quickly she stepped forward, grabbed the injured priestess by the arm and hauled her to her feet, “If you wanna live, you'd better come with us...Erika,” Inanna called and pointed to the spear, “grab that and lets get outta here we've got what we came for!”

“Fury!” screamed the older priestess as she came down the steps and advanced on the trio a heavy wooden club clutched in her hand, “If you help that whore of The Others your soul will be cast into the Pit of Voles for all eternity!”

“The Pit of Voles?” Inanna shrugged, “Whatever...” she took a firmer hold on the priestess' arm and pulled her towards the gate in the little fence around the temple grounds.

“YOU'RE THREATS ARE EMPTY!” Inanna's priestess yelled back, “THERE ARE NO OTHERS, THERE IS ONLY THE GODDESS, EVERY WORD YOU SPEAK IS A LIE AND PEOPLE ARE TOO STUPID OR FRIGHTENED TO KILL YOU... **BITCH!!!** ”

“Yeah, that's really religious,” Erika muttered as she brought up the rear and Inanna dragged the priestess away.

0=0=0=0

When they got back to Mivbaz's home they found the big demon had gone out, but he'd left a note which said that he'd gone out to get more supplies and the pack horses for their journey. He also reminded his two human companions how important it was to recruit a priestess with magical knowledge today as he wanted to start out early tomorrow morning.

“Okay,” Inanna sighed as she finished dressing the wound over the priestess' eye, “what's your story and you can start with your name.”

“I'm Sister Diana,” Diana announced haughtily, “and you are?”

“Inanna,” Inanna replied.

“Erika,” Erika added.

“Apart from rescuing priestess' what do you do?” Diana wanted to know.

“Not so fast, you first,” Inanna replied, a hard edge to her voice, “you can start by telling us why that other priestess was trying to kill you and was calling you a heretic.”

“I'm called a heretic because I've learnt the truth...” Diana began.

“The truth?” Inanna frowned as she sat down across the table from Diana and gave Erika a worried look.

“Yes!” Diana said with all the fervour of someone who just _knew_ they were right and everybody else was wrong, “I've seen the books that the church tries to keep hidden, I know the truth...”

“Which is?” Inanna was beginning to think that it might have been a bad idea to have rescued this particular priestess.

“That there are no Others,” Diana now sounded as if she was preaching, “that Men were turned into Beasts by the Goddess as a punishment to women who were too easily dominated and fooled into 'loving' the foul creatures that kept them in bondage...”

“Huh?” Inanna once again looked across the table at Erika, the thief looked back and shrugged helplessly.

“I know the truth,” Diana raved on, “I've read the books that those old, lying bitches keep hidden from the people so they can live lives of comfort as they leach off the people's hard work...”

“Okay...” Inanna was seriously thinking about handing this obviously deranged woman over to the sheriff before she remembered that the sheriff had been killed the day before.

“The people will only be free when the last Lady is hung with the intestines of the last Priestess!”

“That includes you, right?” Erika observed.

“Of course not!” Diana snapped back, “I am the people's saviour!”

“Yeah okay, you're the people's saviour, whatever, we get that already,” Inanna sighed heavily, she needed to inject a note of sanity here, “So, when you're not being the people's saviour, can you do magic?”

“Of course!” Diana replied, “I'm a level seven magic user...”

“Level seven?” Inanna turned to Erika for an explanation.

“Out of ten,” Erika shrugged, “it means she's pretty good and normally quite sane.”

“And I'm a trained healer,” Diana announced as she started to brush dust from her robes having seemingly only just noticed she was a little messed up.

“Good,” Inanna forced a smile, “two for the price of one...so, how do you feel about treasure?”

“Inanna!” Erika cried warningly.

“Hey look she's going to totally find out sooner or later,” Inanna replied, “Treasure...” she smiled as she tempted the people's saviour, “...think of all the people you can save with a two tenths share of treasure.”

“Where is this treasure?” Diana asked a calculating expression crossing her face.

“Not so fast, sister” Inanna snapped back, “you think I'm stupid or something? You learn nothing 'til we're out of town and on the road...so, what do you say? I can hand you back to that very angry priestess at the temple, or...”

“Okay,” Diana sighed, she might be insane but she wasn't stupid, she knew what would happen to her if the high priestess got her hands on her; okay human sacrifice had been outlawed years ago, but they made exceptions where heretics were concerned. “I'll come with you, but I'll need at least some details.

Over the next ten minutes or so Inanna and Erika explained everything they knew without actually mentioning where they were going and that the leader of the expedition was a seven foot tall demon.

“So,” Inanna relaxed now that she and Erika had told Diana everything they knew, “what's all this about a book?”

“Of course its not just one book,” Diana explained, she even sounded sane again having calmed down and she was no doubt thinking about all the treasure she'd be getting her hands on soon, “there's an entire library of texts detailing the depraved acts of men and the stupidity of women before the Goddess struck them down. But the book I managed to steal and read from cover to cover is the easiest to understand...I mean its not even that well written...written by a woman no less...another slave to male dominance no doubt...”

“Uh-huh,” Inanna replied non-committally.

“I...” Diana took a deep breath as if to say, 'wait for it', “...have read the entire book called, 'Fifty Shades of Grey!”

“Huh!?” Inanna and Erika said in chorus.

0=0=0=0

Wiping the blood from her hands, Sister Trinity stepped over or around the bodies of the inhabitants of the small settlement on the road that led to the town of Rosy. Standing in front of her sister Sister she cast aside the bloody rag and pointed on down the road.

“She went that-a-way.”

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

“...so, let me see if I've got this right,” Inanna said as she rode along side Diana; the adventurers had been on the road all day having left Rosy early that morning, “the Goddess,” Inanna began, “the one that everybody says is so nice an' good turned all men into monsters as a way of getting women to stand-up for themselves...seems a little, like, drastic doesn't it?”

“Well, yes,” Diana agreed with a nod; she'd become more 'stable' and less insane sounding after having a good night's sleep, “and I can only assume that she'd tried other ways of getting women to, as you say, stand up for themselves.”

“But they didn't work so she went with the plague option, right?” Inanna added.

“Plague?” Diana frowned in confusion.

“Erm...” Inanna thought hard to cover her mistake, “...where I come from everyone believes that a plague turned all men into monsters...so, we killed them all.”

“Yes, I think you have it in a nutshell,” Diana smiled as she mistook Inanna's understanding as acceptance of her theory.

“Uh-huh,” Inanna nodded as her horse picked its way between the stony sections of the track they were following towards a town called Glid, “so that means that the stories the regular priestess tell about The Others destroying the world and doing the major mojo on all the guys is, how can I put this...a lie?”

“Again Fury Inanna you see the truth so clearly,” Diana smiled at her new convert.

“Hey, hold up sister,” Inanna gave Diana a look that said, don't add me to your list of converts (which she suspected only had her name on it), “like I say the last thing I can remember was fighting really tough vampires and demons in some caves then, WHAM! I'm in another cave, naked and the only other person around is some mad-magic-lady, so I'm not making my mind up about anything 'til I've done the research with the books.”

“You can read my copy of Fifty Shades of Grey if you like,” Diana offered before adding, “however your loss of memory and this story about particularly tough vampires is very disturbing.”

“No story,” Inanna laughed, “those Over-vampires were real...”

Over the weeks Inanna had been in this unfamiliar land, she'd had to come up with a convincing sounding story to explain why she didn't know really simple stuff and would also explain her presence. Of course like all good lies Inanna's 'cover story' had elements of truth.

“...like I know I had a sister, and a best friend who was a witch and there was at least one other Fury...”

“Your girlfriend?” Diana asked, she appeared genuinely concerned for Inanna 'lack' of memories which made Inanna feel slightly guilty for lying to her.

“No way!” Inanna laughed, the thought of herself and her sister fury being an 'item' was...not so far fetched as she might have at first suspected; there had been all that flirting when they'd first met...Inanna pushed any thoughts of herself 'making out' to the dark recesses at the back of her mind. “No,” Inanna shook her head sadly, “we had our issues...”

“Issues?”

“Yeah, like, we tried to kill each other...”

“Oh, I see _issues_ ,” Diana nodded her head sagely.

Turning in her saddle Inanna looked back to where Erika and Mivbaz, rode together leading their string of pack horses. Oddly Diana hadn't made an issue about Mivbaz being a demon, she seemed to accept that not all demons were totally evil, a little weird, yes, but not necessarily evil.

“Hey, girls,” Inanna called, “are we camping out tonight or do we get to sleep in beds somewhere?”

“I was planning on sleeping in Glid tonight,” Mivbaz called back, “it's two or three miles further on...”

“Cool,” Inanna replied with a wave before catching up with Diana.

“This road...” Diana began only to be interrupted by Inanna.

“Road!?” Inanna laughed, “This is barely a track!”

“Even so,” Diana pressed on, “this was probably a well made road before the Goddess destroyed everything, see how straight it is? Modern tracks and roads are never this straight.”

“Yeah,” Inanna agreed, now she really looked at it the track was unnaturally straight, “Just how long ago did the goddess blow everything up?”

“Blow...oh, I see like a gunpowder barrel exploding but much bigger,” Diana thought for a moment, “that's a good way of explaining what happened, Inanna, thank-you.”

“No problemo,” Inanna shrugged, “but, like I say, how long have things been all blown up?”

“At least eight hundred years,” Diana replied sadly, “perhaps even longer, people were reduced to living like savages, in fact from some of the very fragmentary records from that time, humans nearly died out. I believe that in some places people did.”

“Don't you get pissed at the goddess for doing this stuff?” Inanna wanted to know.

“Sometimes,” Diana replied quietly, “but then I remember its all for the greater good.”

“Greater good?” Inanna shook her head, “Sorry I can't believe that...all those people dying...no-way.”

“Of course you'd feel that way,” Diana pointed out, “you're a Fury it's your instinct to protect and save people, but that doesn't change the truth...”

“The truth?”

“The truth is, my dear fury, that women are still in bondage to males however far we appear to have taken full control of our lives.”

“Huh?” Inanna shrugged, “I'm not in bondage to anyone least of all males.”

“Think about it Inanna, you're an intelligent woman...”

“Pretend I'm not,” Inanna smiled.

“Women still need men so they can have more daughters...”

“I'd hardly call being locked up behind the sheriff's office as holding women in bondage,” Inanna pointed out curious to see how Diana would explain herself.

“As long as women need man-beasts to give them children, women will never truly be free of the curse of _man_.”

“Just as well we use the seeds from the tree of life,” Inanna observed.

“True, but maybe one day in the future,” Diana got a far away look in her eyes, “women will find a way then we will all be truly free.”

“Whatever,” Inanna sighed.

0=0=0=0

It was well before last light that the party rode into the little town of Glid. It seemed a busy little place with several stores a hotel, two saloons, a livery stable and a post office but no sheriff's office. The strangest thing about Glid was that although there were a lot of human people walking about, by far the largest section of the town's population appeared to be made up of bears. Bears of all shapes, sizes and colours...who wore clothes and walked about on their hind legs and stopped to gossip with their friends both human and Ursidae.

“Weird,” Inanna muttered under her breath as they rode down main street towards the livery stable.

“An abomination!” Diana gasped.

“Hey,” Inanna turned to the priestess, “live and let live...unless something's try to kill you, these bears don't seem so bad.”

“No,” Diana pointed across the street, “an Abomination...”

“What?” Inanna turned to see what Diana was pointing at; there, apparently doing some business with a couple of tall bears was the strangest demon Inanna had ever seen. 

It was like a sort of cross between a spider and a hairy horse and possibly parts from several other creatures; one of which had been an elephant judging from the prehensile truck that sprouted from between the creature's dozen or so eyes. Its front two legs were its arms and its legs must have had a span of about eight feet. Apart from Inanna and Diana, and the two bears no one seemed to be paying it any particular attention.

“Whatever,” Inanna dismissed the monster from her mind as it didn't appear to be a danger.

“Inanna, Diana,” Mivbaz called as they arrived at the stable (run by a short, human woman and an equally short bear), “go get us rooms at the hotel, would you? Erika and I will deal with the horses.”

“You're the boss,” Inanna called as she dismounted.

Moments later Inanna and Diana were walking back down the street towards the hotel. Back in Rosy, Diana had discarded her priestessly robes; she now wore a white linen shirt with those big puffy sleeves that seemed so popular in this land; she also wore black breeches tucked into black riding boots. Over her shirt she wore a tough leather jerkin strong enough to resist knife and sword thrusts. The only things she'd kept that might have identified her as a priestess where her quarterstaff (apparently priestess' weren't allowed to use bladed weapons) that Inanna had misidentified as a spear when they'd first met; she also wore, what Inanna was fairly sure was called an 'Ank'. The symbol dangled from her neck secured by a leather thong, it was about two inches long and made of iron, in fact it was just like any one of thousands of similar pieces of jewellery worn by women to show their allegiance to the Goddess.

Stepping up onto the sidewalk, Inanna and Diana waited for a Mama-bear to pass by pushing a pram holding a very cute baby bear. Walking on into the hotel the two women walked over to the reception desk behind which, instead of a human clerk, was a female bear dressed in a blue dress covered in a pretty, pink, flower pattern.

“Can I help you?” asked the lady bear in perfect English; if you couldn't see it was a bear talking you'd think you were talking to a human.

“Can we get four rooms for the night?” Inanna asked.

“Hmm, let me see,” the bear flipped through the pages of her register and then checked the key board behind her, “I can let you have two singles and a double.”

“Can you and Erika share or share with me?” Inanna asked her companion quietly.

“Sure?” Diana nodded as she raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Look, I don't think any of us should share with Mivbaz...”

“Oh, the sex thing,” Diana nodded knowingly.

“Yeah, the _sex thing_ ,” Inanna replied before turning back to the bear, “yeah we'll take them, how much?”

0=0=0=0

After a pleasant evening meal, served by a teenage female bear, probably the daughter of the two bears who ran the hotel. The adventurers sat for a while discussing their plans for the next day until they saw the waitress looking pointedly at the clock on the wall. Going up the stairs to their rooms they wished each other good night before heading for their beds. After having a shower in the bathroom a little further down the corridor from her room, Inanna locked her door, checked that her window was firmly closed and there were no tall, dark brown demons hiding under her bed or in the big wooden closet next to the door. For a fleeting moment, she considered pushing the closet in front of the door, but she told herself that she was just being paranoid.

The previous night, the last they'd spent in Rosy, no one had got drunk and when Inanna woke up the following morning she didn't have a hangover and although there was a demon, a priestess and a thief in the same bed as her, she didn't have any memories of wild sexual excess to deal with. Things, she told herself were on the up and up. Satisfied that she was in her very own 'Inanna Fortress of Solitude', she climbed into bed, blew out the lamp and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

0=0=0=0

Having had a wonderfully restful night's sleep, Inanna went down for breakfast the following morning. No sooner had she sat down at the same table where they'd ate their dinner the previous night, that Erika, Diana and Mivbaz joined her.

“You girls an' demons sleep alright?” Inanna asked as the waitress bear brought coffee and tea to the table.

“My bed was too soft,” Diana complained.

“And mine was too hard!” Erika appeared to be trying to relieve a stiff neck by massaging it with her right hand.

“Funny,” Inanna shrugged, “mine was just right, slept like a baby, Mivbaz?”

“I slept on the floor, the bed was too short.”

The waitress brought each of them a bowl of porridge.

“Mines too salty,” Erika pushed her porridge away.

“Mines too sweet,” Diana pulled a face.

“Must be my lucky day,” Inanna said between mouthfuls of porridge, “mines just right!”

“I don't like porridge,” Mivbaz added grumpily.

0=0=0=0

Sitting astride the horses (large, black, vicious, semi-magical beasts) Samantha and Trinity watched as the small town of Suthrin burnt. Turning to look at her companion, Samantha sighed heavily before she spoke.

“Do you ever get the feeling that things have got just a little out of hand?”

“Tree bad, fire pretty...” Trinity giggle quietly to herself only coming back from the land of death and destruction when she realised her sister Sister was talking to her, “...What? Sorry, did you say something?”

“I said,” Samantha frowned a little crossly at her sister sorceress, she didn't like to have to repeat herself, “don't you think things have got a little out of hand?” 

“Erm...” Trinity looked around in confusion, she wasn't sure what Samantha was talking about, “...no...not a such.”

“Look,” Samantha gave an exasperated sigh, “we started out this little expedition with just seven War-pigs and a dozen or so of our own slaves, now look!”

It was true, the numbers following the two sorceress' had grown dramatically. There were now over a hundred War-pigs all eager for loot and several less savoury activities, there were the usual camp followers and there was even a slave trader. At the moment this individual was sorting through the survivors of the town's population. The children and the younger more attractive woman would be sold to demons who 'enjoyed' the company of human females. The old, less attractive women and the babies too young to be of any real entertainment value were given to the War-pigs to rape to death and then eat.

“What do you mean, 'look'?” Trinity asked, “I don't see anything wrong, and you did say we needed a bigger demon...”

“Yes but not so many!” Samantha exclaimed, “Look, we came to track down this mysterious Fury from the past, now she'll see us coming from miles away. You have to admit that all the burning towns, farms and settlements are a bit of a give away...”

“Well,” Trinity pouted like a five-year-old, “I suppose...”

“'Suppose' has nothing to do with it,” Samantha snapped, “I say we cut most of this rabble loose,” she gestured imperiously to the crowd of warriors and camp followers, “Maybe keep twenty or thirty of the biggest most vicious War-pigs and move on...”

“Well,” despite her reservations Trinity could see where her Sister was coming from, “we would move faster and eventually some one will notice this bunch and send soldiers...”

“And we all know how War-pigs react to organised bodies of troops,” Samantha said in a low voice.

“Yes...” Trinity frowned, “...they run away.”

“Good, then its settled,” Samantha sat up extra straight in her saddle, “get Captain Ozzy to pick out a small, tough, reliable warband then we head out at first light while these,” again she gestured to the War-pigs that would be left behind and to the mercy (which is to say 'none') of any noble woman's troops that happened upon them, “get slaughtered. Hopefully their bloody and no doubt painful deaths will cover our departure.”

“Great plan, Sam...” Trinity smiled.

“Yes it is isn't it?”

“I just said it was!”

“Oh, so you did,” Samantha turned her horses head away from the scenes of death and destruction, “early night I think, we'll want to be fresh for the morning.”

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

It was almost mid-morning by the time Mivbaz's expedition was ready to leave the bear-town of Glid behind them. However, the delay in starting out didn't appear to bother the demon, in fact he seemed willing to accommodate the little delays caused by Diana wanting to make an offering to the Goddess to ensure a safe journey and Erika's need for some last minute shopping. On the other hand Inanna simply sat near the horses and played with her recently acquired pistols and crossbow. Quickly Inanna decided that the two revolvers were more trouble than they were worth. They made a terrible noise when she fired them, plus they produced great clouds of white, evil smelling powder smoke. They took forever to reload and finally the bullets were two small to do anything bigger than a chicken any damage; she threw them away in disgust. The crossbow, being more familiar looked like a much more useful weapon. Eventually, Mivbaz called everyone together, Inanna frowned, she'd seen all the signs before, the demon was going to make a...speech!

“Alright ladies,” Mivbaz stood up and towered over his companions, “this is the end of civilisation...”

“This was civilisation?” muttered Erika as she gestured to the small, bear, town.

“If I may continue?” Mivbaz looked pointedly at Erika, “As I was saying this is the last time we'll see a town...of any kind, until after we've completed our quest...a point of no return if you please...”

“Quest?” Inanna whispered to Diana, “No one mentioned a _quest_ , I thought we were here for the gold and stuff.” Having been transported into this land without any visible means of support, Inanna had become very financially conscious.

“I'm only here for the bear,” Diana sniggered quietly, having made a pun of the words 'beer' and 'bear'.

“...so,” Mivbaz continued, “if any of you want to back out, now's the time to do it...” he paused and waited for anyone who wanted to say they weren't coming. Obviously everyone needed the cash as much as Inanna did so everyone kept quiet. “Good,” the demon's smile exposed his large, yellow, teeth, “my faith in you was not misplaced...”

“I wish he'd get on with it,” Erika muttered under her breath.

“The path we have to follow will be long and difficult...”

“How long?” Diana wanted to know.

“Erm...” Mivbaz held his hands about five feet apart, “...about this long? It depends on the size of the map...”

“Funny demon,” Erika called out, “no, she meant how far do we have to ride _really_?”

“Oh, I see...” Mivbaz thought about this for a moment, “...seven or eight days ride, it depends on the state of the track.”

“Then we totally better get moving,” Inanna said as she got to her feet and walked over to her horse, “if its eight days ride that means, sixteen days there and back, plus however long it'll take to find the treasure...”

“I'm guessing we'll be away for the entire month,” Diana observed as she too headed for her horse.

“A month!?” exclaimed Erika, “Mind if we stop off at the general store I need to get something?”

“What sort of 'thing'?” Mivbaz wanted to know.

“Personnel items,” Erika blushed..

“Personnel items?” Mivbaz pondered, “OH! _Personnel,_ items, yes I don't see why not.”

“Okay now we've got that out of the way,” Inanna tried to swing herself up into the saddle and cursed the height of her horse; she'd tried shorter horses before but they'd just made her look ridiculous and no one took her seriously, “can someone give me a...”

Before she could say 'boost' a large demonic hand was placed on her butt and she found herself in her saddle. Turning she looked into the grinning face of Mivbaz, his head was about level with her own now she was mounted.

“If you try anything...?” Inanna warned.

“Me?” Mivbaz tried to look hurt and innocent at the same time, being a demon he couldn't quite pull it off, “Like I said before, I only had sex with you because you asked me to...”

“Never mind what I might or might not have asked,” Inanna replied quickly, “but Inanna is totally off limits to demons for this trip.”

“But not to Erika and Diana?” Mivbaz asked as he tried to hide his smile; as his smile was a particularly big one he failed, “And what about after the trip?”.

“I didn't...” Inanna started to reply but gave up, she was starting to feel flustered by the demon's repartee.

“But you were thinking it,” Mivbaz sniggered, “and it does seem a little unfair...”

“Alright, already!” Inanna snapped, “Can we get on, please? I didn't expect some kind of Hispanic Inquisition...”

“No one expects the Hispanic Inquisition...” observed Diana.

“Their chief weapon is surprise...” Erika added.

“Surprise _and_ fear...” Diana corrected the young thief.

“OKAY!” Inanna brought the lecture on the attributes of the much feared and despised Hispanic Inquisition to a premature end, “lets get this show on the road and get outta here or we'll never get back.”

“Bossy, much,” Mivbaz said quietly.

“Aaaaagh!” Inanna cried in frustration.

0=0=0=0

It was about midday when Mivbaz called a halt to rest the horses. For the last few hours they'd been riding down a heavily wooded, steep sided valley. They'd been following a track that criss-crossed the stream that flowed down the middle of the valley towards Glid. Here and there, Inanna had noticed what looked like the remains of a once well made road. At some point in the far distant past someone had thought it worthwhile to built a proper road up the valley, which sort of suggested that there might be something at the end of it.

“I though you and me could try out our new weapons,” Mivbaz said as he sat next to Inanna as he ate his sausage sandwich.

“Cool!” Inanna had in fact been itching to fire off one of the little bombs that her new crossbow had been designed to use.

Yes, she'd shot rocks from the bow just to get used to handling the weapon and see how accurate it was and what its range was. But she'd thought firing one of the spiky bombs wasn't such a good idea so close to town.

“Okay guys,” Inanna called as she got to her feet and picked up the crossbow, “watch this...”

'Spanning' the bow she cocked it with ease, not something that a normal woman could have done. Next she retrieved one of the metal bombs from her saddle bag. Once the bomb was in place in the cup designed to hold the bomb before it was fired, Inanna waited for Mivbaz to light the fuse. The fuse hissed and smoked as Inanna took aim at a tree about fifty paces away (that's a normal person's paces not Inanna paces) and shot the bomb from her bow. The bomb described a smoky arc through the air until it hit the tree its spikes holding the bomb against it, a second or two later the bomb exploded cutting the tree trunk in two.

“Impressive,” cried Diana.

“WOW!” agreed Erika.

“That was about a count of five,” Mivbaz said once the smoke had cleared.

“Yeah that's about what I thought,” Inanna agreed, “I wonder how reliable these fuses are?”

“I wouldn't want to rely on them, too much,” Mivbaz cautioned.

“Okay, lets see your portable cannon in action,” Inanna said as she put away her crossbow, she only had about twenty-or-so bombs and she didn't want to waste them on blowing up trees.

“Right!” Mivbaz grinned as he picked up his gun; once again it kind of reminded Inanna of a cannon's barrel attached to a piece of wood, however in Mivbaz's massive hands it looked like a large musket.

First the demon opened a little cover that hid the touch hole and poured in some fine powder before he closed it again. Next he poured more gunpowder down the barrel, this powder came from one of a dozen wooden flasks each of which carried one measured charge of powder. Next he took a handful of shot and poured it down the barrel after the powder. Finally he stuffed a piece of old rag into the muzzle and rammed it into place with the weapon's ramrod, this would prevent the powder and shot from coming out of the barrel if he needed to point it downwards.

Walking over to the campfire he lit a length of match (chord that had been soaked in vinegar and then allowed to dry), blowing on the match until it glowed redly he held the fore-stock in his left hand and the butt under his right arm and with his right hand (and being careful to keep the glowing match out of the way) he opened the pan and applied the match. There was a short pause followed by a loud bang and a cloud of dirty white smoke as the shot sprayed from the gun's muzzle. About twenty paces away a bush met an untimely end as the buckshot ripped apart its leaves and branches.

“Wow...!” gasped Diana quietly, “The wonders of modern science...”

“I think I've gone deaf...” Erika complained.

“It'll pass,” Inanna said as she went to examine the remains of the bush, Mivbaz followed closely behind her.

“I'm using iron shot so it'll be effective against demons,” Mivbaz explained as he and Inanna looked at the destroyed bush.

“Cool,” Inanna nodded, “can you load faster than that?”

“With practice,” Mivbaz agreed, “but now we must be on our way.”

0=0=0=0

The two sorceress' rode through the night at a brisk trot, they would have galloped and had their big, black, semi-magical mounts leave fiery hoof prints in their wake. But, even Samantha and Trinity had to be practical, they also had to think about how their seventeen War-pigs mounted on cart horses and their own slaves and the pack ponies would keep up. So, they kept in down to a brisk trot and cursed the fact that even they had to have followers. Talking of followers, they'd left the bulk of their army of hangers-on to be dealt with by the first noble woman who could raise a force big enough to destroy the band of demons and humans who'd been following them around. At dawn the sorceress' called a halt for breakfast and a rest.

“There must be a simpler way to follow this fury that Sister Jessica brought forward from the past,” Sister Trinity asked as she sipped her early morning coffee.

“In what way?” Samantha wanted to know as she accepted a plate of ham and eggs off one of her slaves.

“Well...” Trinity put down her mug and thought for a moment, “...all this torturing people and burning down towns, while fun, is a bit obvious...”

“Hmmm...” agreed Samantha, “...I agree, it does attract the wrong sort. What do you suggest?”

“This fury, was brought forward by magic, right?”

“Right,” Samantha nodded her head.

“So it stands to reason that she might leave a magical signature in her wake.”

“Are you suggesting that a simple locator spell or track magic spell would lead us to our prey?” Samantha asked.

“Uh-huh,” Trinity nodded.

Both Sorceress' sat in silence for several moments as they pondered the question; why hadn't they thought of this before?

“Darn,” Samantha muttered darkly, “we'll need blood...”

“True,” Trinity agreed as her eyes turned to where the slaves huddled around the cooking fire, “YOU!” Trinity pointed to a dark skinned slave from the south lands, “Come here...NOW!”

Obediently the slave scurried over to her mistress, before the girl could react and try to run away, Samantha held her in a restraining spell while Trinity got out her sacrificial knife and a bowl to hold the blood.

“PLEASE NO MISTRESS!” cried the girl when she saw the knife and the bowl.

“Shut up!” Samantha ordered and although the girl's lips kept moving no sound came from her mouth. “How much blood will you need?”

“Just a bowl full,” Trinity replied.

“About half a pint?”

“About that...”

“Here hold her arm over the bowl,” Samantha told her sister sorceress as she took hold of Trinity's dagger and cut the girl's arm so that her blood flowed quickly into the bowl.

“That's about enough,” Trinity took the bowl away and set it carefully on the ground near the fire.

“Do you think you'll want any more?” Samantha wanted to know.

“Only if we spill this,” Trinity explained.

Keeping the girl in the hold of the restraint spell, Samantha watched as Trinity completed her spell. Once the words of power were said and the offering of blood given to the dark gods a faint trail of light appeared in the air about three feet off the ground. It headed off into the trees in a south easterly direction.

“The light should get stronger the closer we are to our quarry,” Trinity announced.

“Will it need reinforcing?”

“It should last for a couple of days then we'll have to make another offering.”

“Hmmm,” Samantha eyed the five remaining slaves, they'd had to leave the others behind, “we'll need more blood then...”

“I'm sure we can grab someone along the way,” trinity pointed out.

“So we don't need this any more?” Samantha gestured to the girl who struggled vainly in the hold of the restraint spell, Trinity shook her head in the negative, “Captain Ozzy!” Samantha called as she pointed to the slave girl, “A present for you and your troopers...”

0=0=0=0

It was nearly noon on the third day of the 'quest' and Inanna was beginning to wonder if her butt would ever stop aching; she was also wondering if questing could get any more boring. So far they'd followed the track, if you could call it that, in some places it was hardly a path, as it wound between high, tree covered mountains. There was a stream that ran down the centre of the narrow valley and here and there Inanna thought she could make out the remains of quiet substantial bridges that had been designed to cross a much more powerful river. Now the 'river' as she had noted was little more than a stream that they could cross without getting their feet wet. The only things to relieve the boredom was listening to the birds in the trees and watching the cute fluffy woodland creatures as the ran, startled, away from the stream at the rider's approach. However these simple pleasures soon paled and Inanna found herself talking to Diana once more.

“So,” Inanna asked as she pulled her horse up next to Diana's; they were on a section of path where two horsewomen could ride side by side, “What was it like during this Golden Age before the Goddess blew it all up?”

“The histories say it was a wondrous place,” Diana replied with a far away look in her eyes, “apart from all the men oppressing and abusing the women of course...”

“Of course,” Inanna had learnt to agree with Diana to stop her going off into rant about the evil's of 'man'-kind.

“They say people could fly, and talk over long distances, that they had all the knowledge of the world at their finger tips,” Diana sighed sadly, “but they only used this knowledge to play mindless games...it was one of the ways the men of that time kept control of the women.”

“Stands to reason,” Inanna tried to keep any tone of disbelief out of her voice.

“People lived in tall, crystal towers lit by lights that burnt without smoke or flame...”

“Wow,” Inanna interjected deadpan, of course she didn't believe a word of it.

“...and there was always plenty to eat and it was never cold, unless the men of that time wanted it to be cold...” Diana's face went dark as she thought back to those far distant times, “...no doubt the men threw naked women out into the cold and laughed while they shivered...”

“Yeah sure,” Inanna still couldn't quite believe most of what Diana said about the men of the past; however, something else had caught her attention, “Hey, look,” she pointed; they'd come to a place where the valley had widened out to form a small clearing next to the river, “maybe we can...” Inanna was interrupted by possibly the loudest, 'SQUAWK!' she'd ever heard, “...what...” colourful expletives failed her for a moment so she went with, “...the feck was that!?”

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

Hanging on with all her super strength, Inanna tried to regain control of her wildly bucking and rearing horse. The creature that was causing everyone's horse to react so badly was a giant bird, well over twelve feet tall. The monster bird was covered in bright yellow feathers with long, scaly orange legs designed for running. The creature had a wickedly sharp looking, bright red, hooked, beak and sharp clawed feet. Regaining control of her horse for a moment, Inanna saw Erika over to her left still struggling with hers. Mivbaz had appeared to have given up trying to control his horse, he'd dismounted and was even now advancing on the foul creature his cleaver-like sword held firmly in his hand. To her right, Inanna saw Diana being carried away by her panicking horse towards the edge of the forest. 

“AAAAAAAARK!” screamed the bird in anger as it noticed Mivbaz's advance; the monster bird crouched down and pointed its long neck at Mivbaz as it opened its mouth to expose tiny teeth and fluffed up its feathers to make it look even bigger than it was.

Getting to within a couple of yards of the terror-bird, Mivbaz drew back his muscular arm ready to chop off the bird's head with his war-cleaver. Moving surprisingly quickly for such a large creature the bird drew back its head and then struck, knocking the demon on to his back and sending his sword spinning through the air to land in the grass some yards away. The bird stood over the recumbent Mivbaz for a moment and then, just as it was about to strike, Erika's horse galloped close by distracting the bird-brain form its downed prey. Instead of finishing off the demon the big-bird chased off after the teenage thief. Quickly catching up with the girl, the bird struck out with its beak.

Hitting Erika's horse the bird easily killed it, standing with one foot on the dead horse, the bird turned its little beady eyes to where Erika lay still in the grass. With nothing to disturb it the bird drew back its head once again ready to rip Erika apart with it's cruelly sharp beak. Just before the bird could strike three fire balls flew towards it at the speed of arrows. One fire ball flew harmlessly over the monster's head. Another landed at its feet making the creature jump away in alarm from the downed girl. The third ball of blue, magical fire hit the giant bird squarely in the chest.

“SQUAAAAAAAAAAWK!” cried the bird as some of the feathers on it chest burst into flame, it staggered backwards as it pecked at its smouldering chest.

Unfortunately the bird didn't burst into flame, but phoenix like, it rose from the fire and turned to confront the priestess who was now standing with her staff in her hand about fifty feet away. It was about now that Inanna decided that she really needed to do something to defend her friends instead of sitting on her increasingly terrified horse. Unfortunately it was also about now that Inanna's horse, deciding it didn't like the smell of the bird, or the blood of other horses, or the smell of burning feathers, reared up on its hind legs it caused Inanna to slide out of her saddle to land heavily on her butt. The horse, now confirmed Inanna's long held belief that all horses were insane, trotted around her in a wide circle before coming to a halt and looking down at her with that special; 'what are you doing down there?' look that all horses used on people who've just fallen off them.

Climbing painfully back to her feet, Inanna ran over to her horse and grabbed her crossbow. Fury strength meant that she could span the bow faster than a normal archer could draw back the string on her bow. Taking one of the spiky bombs Inanna put it in the leather cup which had been made to hold the bombs. Only then did Inanna notice the possibly fatal flaw in her plan for avian destruction, she didn't have a lighted match to light the bomb's fuse. Looking up she saw the bird standing in indecision, its little bird-brain couldn't make up its mind as to what it should do next. Fortunately Inanna's mind worked infinitely faster than any bird's.

“DIANA!” Inanna yelled, “LIGHT MY FUSE!”

Looking over towards Inanna, Diana instantly realised what Inanna wanted her to do, making a magical sign in the air she caused the bomb's fuse to start to fizz. Raising the crossbow to her shoulder, Inanna aimed and released the pent up power of the bow. The little bomb sailed through the air towards the unsuspecting bird leaving a faint smoky trail behind in its path. Cheering, Inanna saw the bomb hit the bird, but her celebration was cut short when the bomb failed to explode or even stick to the bird. Watching in dismay, Inanna watched the bomb fall from the side of the bird and land by one of its feet.

Cursing her luck, Inanna was about to reload and try again when the bomb exploded. There was a sharp, 'BANG!', a cloud of dirty white smoke and a hideous scream from the bird. Watching in relieved amazement, Inanna saw the bird collapse onto the ground its right leg blow completely off from the knee down. The bird struggled to get back to its feet, but each time it flopped back down to the ground unable to stand on only one leg. As the bird struggled to regain its feet, Mivbaz reappeared, cleaver in hand ready to deal the death blow. The bird, however was still dangerous, it struck at the big demon easily knocking him off his feet again. Luckily Mivbaz fell too far out of reach of even the bird's long neck for it to deliver a killing blow.

Discarding her crossbow and drawing her sabre, Inanna yelled an incoherent warcry as she rushed at the downed bird. Distracted once more the bird turned to face this new threat and had its head cut off by Mivbaz who'd taken advantage of Inanna's wild charge, grabbed his cleaver and struck at the bird. The bird's head spun through the air leaving a fine trail of blood in its wake, the head narrowly missed Inanna before it landed in the grass and rolled to a halt. The bird, however wasn't quite dead yet; it still struggled to regain its feet while its headless neck writhed about like a snake. Eventually loss of blood proved too much for even this monster and it lay still in the trampled, blood stained grass with Inanna and Mivbaz standing victorious over it.

“Chicken stew for super tonight then,” Mivbaz grinned, before Diana's cry for help made him turn to look at the priestess; running across the clearing, Inanna and Mivbaz saw Diana kneeling over the still form of Erika.

“Get my medicine chest from my horse,” Diana ordered as she loosened Erika's clothing.

Turning, Inanna sprinted for Diana's horse which refused to co-operate as it took to its hooves and tried to out pace the fury. Even normal humans can run faster than a horse for short periods, so the horse had little chance of out distancing a fast moving fury. Grabbing hold of the horse's bridle, Inanna dragged the creature to a halt. The horse looked at Inanna with, wide, mad eyes as she pulled the medicine chest from Diana's saddle. Sprinting back to where Diana worked to revive the girl, Inanna placed the chest within Diana's reach before stepping back to watch the priestess work.

“Lets leave the priestess to work her magic,” Mivbaz rumbled quietly as he laid his hand gently on Inanna's shoulder.

“Erm...yeah, I suppose...” Inanna's voice petered out as she let the demon lead her away, “...I hope she can save Erika...”

“As do I,” agreed Mivbaz, “not only will we never find another thief out here...”

“Is that all you can think about!?” Inanna rounded on the big demon, “How its gonna affect your quest?”

“No,” Mivbaz replied levelly, “I was about to say that I like the girl and its unfair that her Goddess heaps such troubles on so young a set of shoulders.”

“Oh...” Inanna turned away to hide her embarrassment, “...erm...sorry, I thought...”

“I'm a demon, I know exactly what you thought,” Mivbaz sounded more than a little disappointed in Inanna.

“Look, I'm sorry Mivbaz,” Inanna explained, “I'm not used to demon's feeling compassion for humans.”

“And have you, Inanna the Fury, ever considered that I might not be demon, that I might be as much a victim as Erika or even yourself?”

“Erm...no?” Inanna replied uncertainly; her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Diana's voice calling to them, turning to look, Inanna saw Erika sitting up supported by Diana.

“Looks like I won't have to find another thief,” Mivbaz called as he strode over to see how Erika was recovering.

“Victim?” Inanna pondered adding, “Not a demon?” 

Dismissing these thoughts from her mind for the moment, Inanna ran to catch up with the demon.

0=0=0=0

Having ridden hard for the last several days, Samantha and Trinity were relieved to find the little town of Glid with its saloons and hotel. Although they'd avoided the town of Rosy they had still lost five of their War-pig escort in a sharp skirmish with the Rosy Town Militia. But, on the bright side Trinity now calculated that they were only two or three days ride behind their quarry. On approaching the town, Samantha had told Captain Ozzy to make a wide circle around the settlement and make camp in the forest at the mouth on the valley were the prey had appeared to have gone. They would all meet up again in a day or two. In the mean time Samantha and Trinity had plans to take long, hot baths and eat something that hadn't been cooked over a smoky camp fire.

0=0=0=0

Looking up from the copy of the 'Glid Herald' she'd been reading (the main story was about some human girl who'd broken into a farmer's house, eaten the farmer's family's porridge before vandalising the furniture and falling asleep in the farmer's, youngest child's bed), the house breaking vandal had been caught by the farmer who'd handed her over to the sheriff, who'd given her fifty lashes before throwing her out of town. Emma, the teenage daughter of the two bears who ran the hotel, saw the two human women walk in through the front door. There was something about the humans that made her claws and teeth itch. Remembering that simply ripping the humans apart without provocation would be 'totally un-cool', she instead put away her paper and sat up straight ready to welcome the prospective guests.

“May I help you?” Emma asked when the two humans didn't immediately approach the reception counter; both women were dressed in black, the taller one in a completely inappropriate and travel stained long dress, while the other wore a more practical tunic and trousers.

“Yes you may, my good girl-bear,” the taller human said as she swept towards the counter with all the unstoppable power of a landslide; Emma's claws itched to take a swipe at the haughty human, instead the bear just smiled her sweetest customer service smile.

“I want rooms and baths for both myself and my friend,” the tall haughty woman gestured to her shorter companion, the woman appeared to remember something that had momentarily slipped her mind, “Oh yes,” she continued, “I'll need somewhere for our slaves to sleep, nothing fancy you understand, a drafty barn maybe or a dank cellar will do just fine...”

“Slaves?” Emma frowned as she imagined ripping out the human woman's throat.

“Yes, slaves,” the woman looked down her elegant nose at the bear-girl, “there's a problem? I suppose we could tie them to the hitching rail...”

“Excuse me,” Emma smiled before she turned and yelled, “MAMA!”

Moments later Mama bear bustled out into the reception.

“What's all this noise...?” Mama-bear walked briskly over to her daughter and had a whispered conversation, drawing herself up to her not inconsiderable full height, Mama-bear said, “Go and fetch your father...”

“Yes Mama,” Emma got down off her stool and hurried off to find her father.

“Now what was it you wanted?” Mama-bear smiled insincerely at the two humans.

“Two rooms with baths and somewhere to put our slaves...” Samantha repeated as she wondered whether there was another hotel in town.

“Did someone say slaves?” asked Papa-bear as he walked into the lobby.

“Sister,” Trinity whispered as she looked up at the huge hotel-owner-bear, “I think it might be wise to forego the pleasures of this town and leave...like _right now_!”

“Nonsense,” Samantha reassured Trinity before turning to face Papa-bear, “yes I have six...”

“Not in this town you don't,” Papa-bear growled as he towered over the two Sorceress'.

“W-what do y-you mean?” asked Samantha, she might be a powerful sorceress but even sorceress' of Mersept retreated in the face of big, angry, intelligent bears of which she noted there were three.

“Emma, go get the sheriff,” Papa-bear ordered.

“Yes Papa,” reluctantly Emma headed out the door to get the sheriff and raise the town, she really wanted to stay and join in when her father finally lost his temper and ripped the nasty human's apart, sure it would mean she'd end up scrubbing away all the blood stains but it would be worth it.

“W-what's going on here?” Samantha demanded as she wondered whether a fire ball would actually stop the bears or just make things worse.

“The town's charter,” Papa-bear explained, “clearly states that any slave who steps within the town borders is freed by that action with no compensation being paid to the slave's former owner.”

“Oh...” Samantha replied, she'd never heard of anything so silly, however it seemed to be the law here, so, “I think you're right Sister,” Samantha started to sidle towards the door pulling Trinity along by the arm as she did so, “I don't think we're welcome here and its time for us to leave.”

“Glad you've seen the light, Sister,” Trinity replied before turning and pushing open the door.

Outside, Trinity saw a group of humans and bears freeing her and Samantha's slaves from their chains.

“Darn!” Trinity cursed under her breath, now who was going to cook and clean for her?

Everyone knew that those self cleaning spells were very unreliable, you only had to ask Mickie and Mini...only you couldn't because they'd both been drowned when those animated brooms had filled their house with water.

A commotion a little further down the street drew the sorceress' eyes away from their ex-slaves. It seemed like the entire population of Glid was marching determinedly towards them. Both humans and bears were armed with a wide verity of bows, crossbows, swords, axes, halberds and those weird staff things with chains and spiky balls.

“Sister!” Trinity called as she shook Samantha's arm trying to get her attention.

“What...?” Samantha's voice faded away when she caught sight of the well and heavily armed mob...no torches and pitchforks for this mob, they meant business.

“Time to go,” Trinity said readying a teleportation spell just in case they couldn't make it to the horses.

“They certainly believe in 'the right to arm bears' here abouts,” Samantha pointed out just before the two sorceress' made a mad dash for their horses.

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

It'd been two days since the attack by the monster bird and so far there had been no further incidents, Inanna somehow knew it couldn't last. At least one thing hadn't changed, the landscape was exactly as it had been since they'd entered the valley. The same trees covering the same high mountains that seemed to loom over them and made the morning arrive late and dusk arrive early. The same stream still meandered its way between the high valley walls, the same path that every now and then showed some sign that many-many years go it had been something more than a rough track still crossed and recrossed the stream. 

On the plus side the weather was good, pleasantly warm and when it did cloud over and rain there were all those trees to shelter under so no one really got wet. Today Inanna found herself riding next to Mivbaz, turning in her saddle she looked back down the track. About twenty-five yards behind her, Diana and Erika rode side-by-side as they led the pack horses, Inanna smiled as she noticed the two women holding hands as they rode along.

“Those two have got like, totally close since our fight with the big-bird,” Inanna observed.

“Indeed,” Mivbaz glanced over his shoulder at the two women and nodded, “I often wonder at the speed at which you humans fall in love.”

“You do?” Inanna looked back at her companion.

“I do,” again Mivbaz nodded, “amongst my own people courtship takes much longer.”

“It does?” Inanna saw an opening to maybe getting some more information about Mivbaz's people out of the demon, a subject on which he'd been pretty closed mouthed, “So how long does it take?”

“Oh,” Mivbaz sighed heavily, “a loooong time,” he grinned, “not like you or me...”

“There is no you and me,” Inanna reminded him warningly.

“No?” Mivbaz continued as if Inanna hadn't spoken, “At home I'd have to do the whole flowers and dinner thing before I'd get anywhere with a female...”

Inanna smiled as she imagined Mivbaz with a bunch of flowers in his big hand.

“...not like you...”

“Like me?” Inanna asked slowly.

“You're a really cheap date,” the demon explained.

“I am?” Inanna was unsure whether she should feel insulted or not.

“Yes, all I had to do to get you into bed was to get you drunk...”

“Why you...!” Inanna decided she felt insulted and punched the demon's arm.

“OW!” Mivbaz half cried, half laughed as he rubbed the spot where Inanna had hit him, “You know,” he laughed, “you remind me of the females back home, in fact you're very like the females back home...”

“Angry and wanting to beat the crap outta you?”

“No not so much that,” Mivbaz smiled wistfully, “apart from your colour, height and all the hair...”

“My hair?” Inanna self-consciously stroked her hair.

“Yes your hair...” Mivbaz considered his words before adding, “...I don't suppose you'd consider shaving it all off would you?”

“NO I WOULDN'T!” Inanna yelled as she took another swing at the demon, this time Mivbaz was ready for her and ducked out of the way.

“Look,” Mivbaz held up a placatory hand to forestall another attempt on his life, “what I'm trying to say is...for a human I find you quite attractive.”

“Quite?” Inanna frowned.

“Oh, alright,” Mivbaz sighed, “how about _very_ attractive...”

“Better,” Inanna pouted.

“...for a hairy human,” the demon sniggered.

The miss matched couple rode on in silence for a minute or two before Inanna spoke again.

“The other night,” Inanna began hesitantly, “after the fight with the big-bird you said something about us both being victims and how you're not a demon, what was all that about?”

“Well,” Mivbaz shrugged, “to me I'm not a demon, I'm 'people', its you humans who are the weird creatures...”

“Yeah I can get that,” Inanna nodded.

“Its a pity more people aren't like you, Inanna,” Mivbaz said sadly, “too often people see me and yell, 'DEMON!' and out come the pitch forks and burning torches...but, considering what's been going on here for the last several hundred years, well, lets just say I'm not surprised.”

“Surprised?”

“That people mistake me for a 'demon',” Mivbaz shrugged his great shoulders once again.

“So if you're not a demon, what are you?”

“A traveller, who got lost and came here by accident,” Mivbaz smiled down at Inanna, “much like yourself...”

“Like me?” Inanna asked, “What do you know about how I got here?”

“I'm guessing of course,” Mivbaz replied, “but, I'm guessing you didn't want to come here.”

“Trust me when I say that being here is way better than being where I was right at that moment,” Inanna explained, “but you're right I didn't come here from choice.”

“I don't suppose you'd want to tell me where you were?” Mivbaz asked as he took an unusual amount of interest in the trees they were riding passed.

“I don't suppose you'd like to tell me exactly how you got here?” Inanna countered.

“It wouldn't be my first choice,” Mivbaz smiled.

0=0=0=0

“LOOK AT THIS DRESS!” Samantha raged as she paced up and down in front of the campfire, “IT'S RUINED!”

“Well, it was a little dressy for adventuring,” Trinity pointed out mildly. 

The two sorceress' had escaped Glid by the skin of their teeth. The town's people and bears had come after them intent on doing them majorly bodily harm. On the other hand, Samantha and Trinity weren't backward in coming forward and had used copious amounts of magic to ensure their survival. Although Samantha's outfit was ripped and stained and could not be worn again, the inhabitants of Glid would not forget their visit and were unlikely to come after the two women...ever!

Not only had Samantha's sartorial elegance received a major hit, the two sorceress' had lost their pack-horses and all their slaves. True they still had their War-pig escort and the pack-horses that had gone with Captain Ozzy, but... The truth of the matter was that War-pigs made lousy body servants and worst cooks. This meant that Samantha and Trinity would have to use magic to do the cooking and general camp-side chores and magic that was being used for menial things couldn't be used for the important things in life.

“CAPTAIN OZZY!” Samantha screamed; the War-pig officer looked up from his own camp fire and gave a quiet, long suffering sigh, “I want you to find a farm and bring me a nice plump toddler...I need a sacrifice, so, the younger and cuter the better.”

Grunting his obedience Captain Ozzy shrugged, gestured to a couple of his braver troopers and picked up his weapons. The witch hadn't said what he should do with any other humans he might find, plus they had more meat than they needed just at the moment, violating the humans to death was always fun, so he was happy to obey.

“What are you planning, Sister?” Trinity asked as she too stood up.

“We need more power,” Samantha explained, “I'll sacrifice the child to one of the greater demon-gods...”

“Like Jistdica the Sadistic?” Trinity quieried.

“Yes!” Samantha smiled evilly, “The Hell Goddess Jistdica would be perfect, thank-you...”

“Think nothing of it,” Trinity smiled.

“Alright, I won't,” Samantha shrugged, “whatever, she'll give us a power boost and I'll be able to magic up a new outfit.”

“Something a little more 'adventurey' I hope,” Trinity suggested, “but no chainmail bikinis...” she winced at a memory, “...they don't half chafe...and they're cold and don't actually afford that much protection.”

“Alright, alright,” Samantha sulked; she thought she'd look pretty hot in a chainmail bikini, “no bikinis, chainmail or otherwise...”

“Cool,” Trinity sighed with relief, “and after you've got a new outfit?”

“We'll raise a really nasty demon...”

“Oh goodie!” Trinity clapped her hands in glee.

“Yes, something that'll be able to rip the prey into bloody, screaming lumps of bloody...”

“You said 'bloody' twice in the same sentence, you could have used 'sanguinary' instead,” Trinity pointed out.

“Whatever,” Samantha dismissed her comrade's observation, as she so often did, “now you've made me lose my thread...”

“Sorry...”

“Anyway you get the idea.”

“Sure, right, powerful demon to kill this fury we're chasing,” Trinity summed up their part of the plot in a short sentence, “erm...” she hesitated unsure whether she should bring this up or not, “...look, big, powerful demon, right, totally vicious and unbeatable in combat, right?”

“Right,” Samantha nodded.

“Do you think we could get one that can do the camp chores as well?”

0=0=0=0

It was dark now, although that didn't bother Inanna as she squatted by the stream, it'd been her turn to wash the plates after their evening meal which Mivbaz had cooked, the big demon always volunteered to do the cooking. Pausing she looked up at the river of stars above the valley. There were so many of them, many more than she could remember from back home. Of course then, when she'd been out at night she'd not had much time to look at the stars unless it was to look out for evil, mind sucking, flying demons.

But here, she had the time to lie on her back and watch the stars before going to sleep, she supposed that the air here was cleaner and more stars filled the night sky. Also with all the added starlight it made her night vision even more effective, on some particularly clear nights it was almost like daylight to her. Hearing a soft foot fall behind her, she turned to see Mivbaz walking over to her, he sat down on a boulder by the side of the stream.

“Come to help with the dishes?” Inanna asked, “Because if you have you're too late I've almost finished.”

“No,” the demon shook his great head, “Diana and Erika are, as you say, 'making out' and I might add, making far too much noise, so I thought I'd give them some privacy.”

“So you thought you'd come and watch the stars with me?” Inanna collected up the plates and utensils and put them to one side before coming to sit next to Mivbaz, “Budge-up,” she told the demon, he shuffled to one side to make room for her.

“Sort of,” Mivbaz shrugged, “you know you asked me where I came from?”

“Uh-huh,” Inanna replied as she moved closer to the demon, the night had turned a little chilly and it was nice to sit next to another warm, living body, even if it did belong to an oversized demon.

Looking up into the night sky, Mivbaz pointed.

“You see those three bright stars?” Mivbaz asked, “You humans used to call them 'Orion's Belt'...”

Inanna frowned, she had a vague memory of either Ayasha pointing the stars out to her; now she wished she'd paid more attention, the name meant nothing to her.

“Yeah,” Inanna nodded.

“Well, if you look to the right a little you'll see a faint red star...”

“Oh-yeah I can see it,” Inanna replied with a smile, there between two much brighter stars was a red star, with her sharp fury eyes she could make it out quite clearly.

“Well, around that star is a smaller brighter star that orbits its bigger brother every twelve hours and around those stars are the remains of several planets which were torn apart when mankind was still living in caves,” Mivbaz sighed heavily and Inanna thought sadly, “I was born on one of those asteroids in a mining colony...”

After a long silence, Inanna said...

“Get outta here!” she laughed, it wasn't unheard of for demons to claim that they came from different worlds, “No way!”

“Whatever,” Mivbaz shrugged, “you either believe me or you don't, you opinion won't change the truth.”

“Hey look,” Inanna looked up into Mivbaz's big brown eyes, “if you're from another world, how did you get here, huh?”

“Oh!” Mivbaz chuckled, “That's a story for another night and another camp fire!”

“Yeah right,” Inanna smiled.

“Right, now I have you in a good mood,” Mivbaz put his great arm around Inanna's shoulder, “I was wondering if you'd like to have sex with me...”

“Ye...No...!” Inanna replied without too much conviction, maybe it was the starlight or maybe it was feeling another warm, living body next to her own, but she almost wanted to say yes.

“I have a couple of bottles of apple schnapps in by saddle bags,” Mivbaz said hopefully, “we can open one of those and you can pretend it was the alcohol that made you have sex with me...”

“Oh screw the schnapps!” Inanna threw both her arms around Mivbaz's neck, she had to stand up to do this but it brought their lips into kissing range, “Oh shut-up and kiss me!”

0=0=0=0

Watching from the edge of the clearing, evil, black, beady eyes watched as the two humans and the human and demon mated under the stars. The owner of the eyes was only about nine inches tall, his skin was blue and he wore white trousers and a white Phrygian cap. This particular creature was a scout, sent out by the Queen to warn of any intruders approaching the hive, its secondary function was to search out new food sources for the hive.

As it watched the demon's tiny mind seemed to realise that the intruder's were both a threat and a possible food source. Whatever they were the news of the intruders must be taken back to the Queen at the hive. Turning away from the clearing the demon walked straight into the large tabby cat that had come up silently behind it. The demon cried out in alarm, but its call for help was silenced as the cat lashed out with a claw fringed paw. The demon flew through the air to land two or three feet away. It scrambled to its feet and tried to run back to the cover of the treeline.

Unfortunately for the demon the cat was too quick for it, pouncing the tabby landed on the demon's back. Opening his jaws the cat bit into the demon's neck and held it until instinct told him that the evil little creature was dead. Letting go of the demon the tabby nudged the small corpse just to make sure it was dead, before it sniffed the night air. A scent picture formed in its little, catty, head, it could sense other more natural and familiar creatures hiding in the forest. The cat could also detect the three humans, the other big creature and the horses that where in the clearing. Satisfied that he was in no immediate danger, the tabby picked up the limp body of the demon and carried it in his mouth back to show his mistress. From previous experience the tabby knew that his mistress would be pleased and would give him a treat.

0=0=0=0

Moving carefully so he wouldn't wake Inanna, Mivbaz sat up and watched the treeline for a moment. He could have sworn that he'd heard something, maybe even seen something, but now there was nothing. In fact he wasn't sure there'd been anything to see. It was only as he was getting back under the blanket he shared with Inanna that a horrible thought came to his mind...perhaps the cargo had escaped. Perhaps even as he lay there they were spreading across the land destroying everything in their path.

Giving a quiet bark of laughter, Mivbaz dismissed these thoughts of death and destruction as improbable. As long as the reactor was functioning the containment field would keep the Schtroumpfs trapped inside his star ship. However, the sooner he and his companions got to the ship the better, there was also the fact that the zoo he sometimes worked for would pay handsomely for the three prime human specimens he was bringing to the ship.

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10.

This morning, Inanna rode at the head of the little group of adventures, the self satisfied smile of the sexually contented on her face. The previous night had been fantastic, she'd lost count of the number or orgasms she'd had, Mivbaz was a vigorous and generous lover and to be honest so much more satisfying than any of her previous human lovers. Sighing contentedly she hoped that she and Mivbaz could do it again tonight. So happy with the world was Inanna that she didn't notice that Diana and Erika had come to ride either side of her until Diana coughed quietly to attract her attention.

“Diana!?” Inanna cried out in surprise adding, “Erika!? How are you girls?”

“We're fine,” Erika smiled happily, she'd been sharing her blanket with Diana the previous night; it must be all the fresh mountain air, Inanna mused.

“It's you we're worried about,” Diana interjected.

“Uh-huh,” Erika agreed with a nod.

“Worried?” Inanna frowned as she looked from one woman to the other.

“It's about you and the demon,” Diana explained.

“Oh is that all?” Inanna giggled, “Don't worry, Mivbaz isn't a demon he's from a different world...”

“Huh?” Diana and Erika chorused.

“Yeah he's from a different planet, so totally not evil,” Inanna smiled happily.

“Oh!” Diana didn't know what to say, but this was beginning to sound like one of those stories the males of old would tell their next victim before locking her up in a dungeon and abusing her, “Sister Inanna, far be it from me to judge what you do between the blankets and who you do it with...”

“But you're going to anyway,” Inanna interrupted the priestess.

“What? Yes...no...what I mean is...” a little flustered, Diana paused and took a deep breath, “...what I find disturbing is...”

“Did we make too much noise?” Inanna cut in, “Like I'm totally sorry if we did...”

“NO!” it was Diana's turn to interrupt Inanna, “No that's not it, but now you mention it, could you keep it down a little in future? No, what I was going to say was that you're so...” Diana looked uncomfortable for a moment, “...so...well there's no other way of saying this...short...and he's so tall it makes it look as if...well...the males from the time before were all abusers of one sort or an other and one of their favourite...erm...hobbies, I suppose you'd call it was to...well....how can I put this? Force themselves on young girls.”

“Hey! What? Now hold on...” Inanna lifted her hand and brought everyone to a halt, she gestured to their surrounding, “What's wrong with this picture?”

Not long after they'd started out this morning, Inanna had noticed that the valley had got suddenly wider, much wider. The track now appeared to be going through a mainly flat area. Sure it was still going slightly uphill but it was basically flat. Yes it was still covered in trees, but here the trees were more widely spaced and the stream they'd been following was now only a couple of inches deep and only two or three feet wide. It was all very pretty and 'natural', but now things had changed again. Looking around, Inanna and her companions saw how the trees had been damaged. The bark on the lower sections of the trunks had been stripped away as had the vegetation from between the trees. Dismounting Inanna walked over to the nearest tree, kneeling down she examined the bare wood running her hand over it as she did so.

“Teeth marks,” she announced as she looked over her shoulder at her friends.

“What?” Diana slipped easily from her saddle and came to join Inanna.

“Have you ever seen anything like that?” to Inanna's untutored eye it looked like the tree had been stripped bare by hundreds of small sharp teeth.

“Not that springs to mind,” Diana straightened up and looked nervously around the forest.

“Looks like they're all the same,” Erika called from where she was looking at a tree on the other side of the track.

“What's going on, ladies?” Mivbaz arrived with the pack animals.

“Not sure,” Inanna replied.

“All these trees have been attacked by something with small sharp teeth,” Diana explained.

“They have!” just for a second there was a look of utter panic in Mivbaz's eyes, “I mean, they have?”

“Uh-huh,” Inanna replied as she studied the not-a-demon's face carefully, “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

“No!” Mivbaz replied just a little too quickly.

“You're sure?” Inanna asked, her fury senses was beginning to tingle.

“Yes,” Mivbaz gave a kind of hollow laugh, “it's probably just some form of local wild life...”

“He's lying,” Diana whispered so only Inanna could hear.

“Y'think?” Inanna whispered back, “Now all we've gotta do is work out why...”

“That's easy,” Diana took Inanna by the shoulder and turned her to face her, “he's an evil, lying male who's only after one thing...”

“One thing?” Inanna eyebrows drew together in confusion.

“Oh for the Goddess' sake, Inanna,” Diana sighed in frustration, “what do you think, have you ignored everything I've said these last few days.”

“Mostly,” Inanna admitted with a shrug.

“You're not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?”

“Keep on like that an' you'll find out just how sharp I am,” Inanna warned, “and hey, look he might be lying but he's also scared.”

“Huh?”

“Go on look at him,” Inanna whispered, “Look I've seen loads of scared demons in my time, usually because they're looking at me and that...” Inanna nodded towards Mivbaz who was staring off between the trees, “...is one scared demon.”

“I thought you said wasn't a demon,” Diana pointed out.

“Stop splitting hairs,” Inanna snapped back before adding in a softer tone, “and I could be wrong, but demons aren't the most trustworthy of creatures.”

“So what do we...” Diana started to ask Inanna what she thought their next move should be, she was, however, interrupted by a call from Erika.

“Hey girls...” Erika's voice sound worried scared even.

“Yeah,” Inanna and Diana turned to see Erika standing with her sword in hand watching the forest on the other side of the track.

“What's wrong?” in a flash, Diana had retrieved her staff from her saddle and was standing next to the young thief.

“Aw, true love,” Inanna sighed before turning to call to Mivbaz, “Hey, big-boy something's wrong here...”

“You're telling me,” Mivbaz muttered under his breath, but Inanna could still hear him, “what now?”

“Don't know,” Inanna led the way over to where Diana and Erika stood, “what's up girls?”

“Erika thought she saw something move over by that dead tree,” Diana pointed out the dead tree she meant.

“Probably a bird or a wolf or maybe a rabbit,” Mivbaz explained, “either way its nothing to concern us...time we were moving on.”

“It was blue,” Erika said emphatically.

“Y-you're sure?” there was definite fear in Mivbaz's voice now.

“Okay, big-boy,” Inanna turned on her erstwhile lover and grabbed him by the testicles, “what's going on, you better tell me if you ever wanna use these again,” she tightened her grip and Mivbaz gave a strangled, high pitched cry of pain, “well, I'm waiting and I can do this all day!”

“Please let go!” the demon was now standing on tip toe as he tried unsuccessfully to escape Inanna's grip, “I'll tell!”

“Okay, but...” Inanna never got to finish her statement because of the cry from Erika.

“LOOK!” Erika pointed to where several blue heads with white caps peered at them from behind a tree trunk.

There was a rasping of steel as swords were drawn.

“What are they?” Inanna asked, Mivbaz's testicles forgotten.

“I really think we should be leaving,” Mivbaz said as he held his clever-like sword at the ready.

“Why?” Diana asked, “They don't look very dangerous.”

It was true, the blue creatures were only about nine inches tall and didn't appear to be armed with anything more dangerous than silly grins.

“Because,” Mivbaz had now retreated towards his horse and was putting away his sword and making ready his gun, “where there's one there's hundreds!”

“See, I told you he was lying,” Diana pointed out with a certain amount of self congratulation.

“Okay,” Inanna snapped, “no one's going anywhere 'til someone tells me what the Goddess is going on here.”

“Inanna...” came the frightened call from Erika's mouth, “...there's more of them!”

“Told you!” Mivbaz continued as he hurriedly rammed home an extra load of buckshot before pulling a length of match from the pouch on his belt and held it out to Diana, “Priestess if you'd be so kind?”

At the snap of Diana's fingers the match burst into smoky flame.

Turning to look at the forest again, Inanna saw little blue things move from cover to cover as they advanced steadily towards the party. By now her fury senses was telling her that things were going to turn out badly if she didn't do something extremely violent pretty damn soon. Readying her sabre, Inanna tried to tell herself that such small opponents couldn't be that dangerous, but then again there did seem to be an awful lot of them.

Just as she was thinking this, one section of the forest floor came alive with running, snarling little blue creatures. They moved very quickly and just for a moment Inanna wished she'd got one of the Ayasha's flame throwing machines. A terrific 'BOOM!' broke her out of her useless wishing and she was enveloped in a cloud of sulphurous smelling, dirty, white smoke. Looking to where the charge of the little blue things had been, she saw that it had been swept away to bloody ruin.

“Way to go, Mivbaz!” Inanna congratulated the demon as he started to reload.

“LOOK OUT!” Mivbaz yelled as he frantically rammed home powder and shot.

Turning at the demon's warning, Inanna eyes were greeted by the sight of hundreds of little blue fiends charging towards her. Drawing back her arm, she brought her blade around and down. Blood sprayed over her boots as her blade cut through at least a dozen of the tiny, blue attackers. Bits of blue bodies flew through the air as she took another swipe at the creatures. It was rapidly becoming obvious that she wouldn't be able to kill enough of them fast enough to stop the attack. Another loud bang resulted in scores of the vicious little beasts being reduced to a sticky, red, paste, but still they came on, there seemed to be hundreds of them.

Backed up against her nervous horse, Inanna had time to look over to where Diana and Erika fought back to back. Small balls of fire sprang from Diana's hand, to burn and scorch the creatures that were closing in on her feet. However, Inanna could tell that the priestess wouldn't be able to keep up this expenditure of magic for much longer. Erika was taking wild swipes at the little monsters. Like most women in this land she carried a sword with a long, narrow, straight blade which wasn't really designed for slashing attacks.

It was at this point that Inanna realised that unless something changed pretty soon they would soon all dead. They'd never be able to kill enough of the vile, little, blue monsters and very soon the creatures would be on them and be able to bring all those teeth into play. Lifting her foot, Inanna stamped down on one of the little creatures and it seemed to her that the others paused in their attack. Great! Inanna smiled, the little blue imps didn't like the thought of being stamped on, maybe they'd live through this after all!

It was as Inanna was taking a slash at a small group of blue things that she'd trapped against a fallen tree trunk, that she noticed the cats. Stepping back, her sword dripping blood, Inanna looked around in amazement. There were cats, all sorts of cats, big, small, tabbies, tortoise shell, black, white, ginger, but the one thing they all had in common was that they really didn't like the blue things. They ripped into the miniature monsters with claws and fangs killing them by the dozen. Sure every now and then the blue horrors would overwhelm a cat but in general the cats were winning. Once again, Mivbaz's gun went off with a boom and swept away a couple of dozen of the tiny demons. Several nearby cats flinched back from the blast.

“Careful of my cats!” came a voice from out of the trees.

Searching out the source of the words, Inanna turned to see an old woman dressed in what looked at first glance as green rags; she strode between the trees with the help of a sturdy wooden staff and as she advanced the blue tide retreated. By the time the woman was standing on the track all the blue things had gone and the cats were sitting around washing themselves.

“I am Griselda Blackwood the Worst Witch,” announced the woman as she leaned heavily on her staff.

Inanna got the distinct impression that this Griselda Witch didn't mean she wasn't very good at what she did, in fact quite the opposite, she was probably the 'worst' witch you could expect to meet if you were doing something you shouldn't be doing.

“Now,” Griselda eyed them all with flint hard eyes, “who the hell are you?”

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

11.

Waking up with a start from a deep sleep. Captain Ozzy opened his eyes to find a small, blue, creature trying to chew through his left boot. Instantly fully awake he moved with surprising speed for such a large, heavily built creature, grabbing his attacker in one trotter-like hand he brought the struggling creature up to his mouth and bit its head clean off. Within seconds, Captain Ozzy was coughing and spitting as he tried to clear his mouth of the animal's foul tasting blood. It was only when he'd spat out almost all of the blue thing's blood that he noticed all the other little, blue fiends moving towards where he and his comrades slept.

“ALARM!” squealed Ozzy as loudly as he could, “ALARM!”

With bad tempered grunts the rest of the War-pig warband woke-up to find itself attacked on all sides by hundreds of little, blue imps. The mutterings of recently awakened War-pigs soon turned to squeals of panic and alarm as they reached for weapons and started to lay about themselves attempting to fight off their attackers.

Once on his feet, Captain Ozzy took wild swipes at his attackers. Although he killed dozens of the vicious little monsters he was hampered by the fact that he was so tall and his foes were so short. Kicking out with his feet as he stood there in the dark, he sent imps flying in all directions, however the imps would simply bounce off the tree trunks before coming back for more. A scream attracted his attention to where one of his comrades was lying on the ground rolling this way and that as dozens of imps swarmed all over him. Thinking quickly, after all his ability to come to quick decisions was part of why he was a captain, Ozzy rushed over to his downed warrior and rolled him through the red embers of the camp fire. The warrior squealed loudly as the embers burnt him and there was a smell of scorched bacon, but the imps cried out in pain and some of them even caught fire.

Free of imps the slightly scorched and smoking warrior regained his feet and began to stomp on the imps with his big, tough leather boots. The imps were squashed under foot as more War-pigs followed the example of their fire damaged friend. Now they had the imps on the run, Captain Ozzy took a moment to look out into the darkness of the forest. War-pigs have good night vision, so it was easy for him to see that the forest floor appeared to be moving as hundreds more imps made their way towards the War-pig camp.

“SET FIRE TO THE FOREST!” Ozzy grunted.

Several War-pigs detached themselves from the general melee and grabbed half burn brands from the remains of the fire. Waving them in the air they fanned the glowing red coals back to life. Once the brands were burning brightly they thrust their torches into the dry undergrowth of the forest and stood back to watch the flames take hold. There wasn't much of a breeze under the trees, but what there was blew the flames towards where the imps were coming from. The imps screamed as the flames consumed them as they continued to press forward. Eventually the realisation that they would not be able to pass through the flames percolated through their tiny minds and the imps broke into panicked flight. It was only when he saw that the forest was well ablaze and that his attackers were in full retreat that Captain Ozzy began to wonder how he was going to put all the fires out.

0=0=0=0

Waking to find themselves surrounded by smoke and flames, plus the occasional burning imp as it ran passed their camp, Samantha and Trinity looked at each other in confusion. When they'd gone to sleep behind their magic barrier the forest had not been aflame and neither had there been lots of dead, burnt imps lying around, they quickly decided that something was definitely amiss.

“WHAT THE FECK IS GOIN' ON!?” demanded Samantha in a voice like doom.

“BUGGERED IF I KNOW,” Trinity cried back, “BUT MAYBE WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE FIRE FIRST?”

“Good idea,” Samantha made her way over to her sister sorceress and took her by the hands.

The two sorceress' began to chant archain words of power as the sky became quickly and unnaturally cloudy. Moments later there was an incredibly bright flash of lightning followed by a boom of thunder loud enough to make the world shake. Seconds later there was a violet but surprisingly localised rain storm as water poured from the skies as if there was going to be a biblical flood in this one particular section of forest. Water poured from the dome of their magical shield as the sorceress' watched the fires being put out and the burnt and blacked bodies of imps floated by in the flood.

“Now,” Samantha sighed as the effects of the storm lessened, “as I think I've already mentioned...what the feck is going on?”

“Good question,” Trinity said as she crouched down and put her arm through the magic shield she picked up the blackened corpse of an imp, “and another would be, what the fricking feck is this?”

The two sorceress' looked at each other in silence for a moment before filling their lungs and yelling...

“CAPTAIN OZZY...?”

0=0=0=0

“Would you like to stroke my pussy?”

“W-what?” Inanna turned in her seat to see the old witch holding out a large mostly black cat towards her, allowing herself to have the cat dumped on her, Inanna let the animal curl up in her lap, very soon it was purring loudly as it fell asleep.

“She's very old,” Griselda Blackwood, informed Inanna, “almost as old as I am, she doesn't hunt anymore but she likes to be petted and she helps keep an old witch warm on these cold mountain nights.”

After there brush with near death and hundreds of little blue imps, Griselda Blackwood had taken the band of adventurers back to her cottage deep in the forest. As they'd moved they'd been escorted by at least one-hundred cats of all colours and sizes. While Inanna had heard of the impossibility of herding cats, it appeared that cats could herd humans...and demons. After a long walk along narrow paths between the trees they'd come to the witch's cottage. The cottage was low and almost seemed to be growing from the forest floor. As they stopped and waited for Griselda to unlock her front door, Inanna noticed that most of the cats appeared to be fading unto the undergrowth, not even leaving their grins behind. A few chosen cats, these Inanna told herself must be the witch's personal body guards, entered the cottage with the witch and took up positions around the one large room that made up the interior of the cottage.

Oddly the inside of the cottage didn't smell of cats, it was in fact neat and tidy and gave the impression of being recently aired. There were brightly patterned blankets folded neatly over the backs of the comfortable looking armchairs which were positioned around the fire place. There was a dining table with four high backed chairs around it. A freshly laundered white table cloth lay on the table while a vase of recently cut wild flowers stood in the middle of the table. Everywhere Inanna looked there seemed to be knick-knacks placed on every shelf. In one corner of the room was a neatly made bed with its clean white sheets turned down while the pillows were hidden under a plethora of toy cats and cat decorated cushions.

The old witch invited them in and fussed about as she got them to sit down before she made a meal for them all the while muttering about how difficult it was to keep her cottage tidy with all the cats about. But the cats couldn't be helped as they were the only things that could hunt and kill the 'Imps' effectively.

“So,” Mivbaz asked as he held a delicate china teacup in his huge hand, “when did all these 'Imps' first appear?”

“Oh, about six or seven months ago,” Griselda replied as she casually magicked another armchair into existence and sat down, “at first I noticed that something had eaten all the wild flowers and damaged the trees. It was only later that I saw my first imp and later still before I was attacked by a swarm of the little bastards.”

“You were lucky to survive,” Diana commented before trying a fairy cake from the cake stand that the witch had placed between the chairs before she'd served up the tea.

“Lucky?” Griselda smiled and shook her head, “Lucky no, quick witted yes, I simply magicked up some giant boots and stamped on the little bastards. It was only later that I discovered how effective my old moggies were...”

“Moggies?” Inanna couldn't remember hearing the word before.

“Cats,” Erika supplied in a whisper.

“Six months you say?” Mivbaz spoke again, “And you and your cats have been fighting these, 'Imps' since then?”

“Yes, yes my dear,” the old witch looked short sightedly at the demon, “You seem very tall, brown and deep voiced to be a girl, my dear.” 

“That's coz he's a tall, brown, guy, demon,” Inanna explain, “I hope that's totally not a problem.”

“No, no,” the witch shook her head, “someone has to be the demon so it might as well be him and yes I've been doing my best to contain the imp menace, but there's so many of the little blighters, I don't think I can fight them for much longer...”

“We might be able to help,” Mivbaz announced unexpectedly, “we're going deeper into the forest so we'll no doubt met more of these 'Imps'...”

Inanna frowned, that was at least the second time she'd heard Mivbaz say the word imp in inverted commas, was there something he wasn't telling everyone? Obviously there must be, if life was running true to form her lover would betray her in some way which meant things could only end badly. Sighing sadly, Inanna slumped back in her chair and stroked the old witch's pussy, the cat's purring must have lulled her off to sleep because when she opened her eyes again she could see nothing but darkness outside the windows. Waking up she saw the fire light reflected in the witch's eyes as she watched her from across the room.

“How old are you, Inanna the fury?” Griselda asked as she sipped from yet another cup of tea.

“Huh?” Inanna asked as she looked around for her friends.

“Don't worry, my dear they're asleep in my guest room, but you looked so peaceful there that we decided not to disturb you, so, I'll ask again, how old are you?”

“Twenty-two, twenty-three maybe,” Inanna replied, “why do you want to know, its not my birthday yet.”

“Hmmm,” the old witch smiled, “and the rest.”

“The rest?” Inanna looked down at the sleeping cat in her lap and thought for just a moment how familiar it looked.

“Oh you're way older that twenty-two or three my dear fury,” Griselda gave a quiet cackle, “why you're older than I am, but from your looks I'd say you skipped over a fair few years.”

“Huh?” her nap must have confused her mind because Inanna wasn't feeling quite as quick witted as she normally did.

“Never mind, never mind,” the old witch smiled kindly, “lets just say I'm very old.”

“How old?” Inanna wanted to know while not understanding why it was important to know.

“Y'know my dear I've lost count but I can remember when things weren't as they are now,” Griselda sort of explained, “I can remember the 'time before' when I was known as the 'Worst Witch' for quite a different reason than I'm called it now.”

“You were alive before the...” Inanna began.

“Yes, I was alive before The Others tried to take over the world, my sisters and I tried to fight them but we were betrayed by the Grand Wizard...” Griselda sniffed, “...I haven't trusted a man since.”

“What happened?” Inanna asked quietly.

“What do you remember. Inanna?” Griselda's eyes seemed to become very big as she looked into Inanna's.

“I...I was fighting some demons and vampires in the caves under my friend's Ayasha's stronghold when...”

“Go on,” Griselda encouraged.

“I don't think I died but the next thing I knew I was standing naked in a cave with this mad-magic-woman...”

“We're all a little mad you know,” Griselda grinned, “only some of us hide it better than others...so, what did you do?”

“Oh I stabbed her in the heart...”

“I can see I'll have to keep all my knives well away from you.”

“Oh, don't worry,” Inanna reassured the witch, “I only stabbed her coz I could sense she was evil.”

“Oh that's a relief I feel much safer now,” Griselda said with heavy sarcasm.

The two women stared in silence at the fire for a moment.

“How much do you know about your demon friend?” Griselda wanted to know.

“Mivbaz?” Inanna shrugged, “He's not so bad, even if he does tell tall tales about being from a different world,”

“Oh he does, does he?” Griselda smirked, she'd had quite a long chat with Mivbaz while Inanna had been sleeping, “If I were you I wouldn't dismiss his stories out of hand, there's something 'other worldly' about him so he might be telling the truth.”

“You think?” Inanna shrugged, “Whatever...”

“So why are you and your friends really riding through my forest,” the witch asked, “I don't believe its to help a little old witch fight off a pack of blue imps.”

“No,” Inanna shook her head as she stroked the cat in her lap, she didn't see any reason not to tell the witch everything she wanted to know, “we're looking for treasure.”

“Treasure?”

“Uh-huh at some Great Round Lake that's supposed to be here...”

“Crater Lake?” Griselda used the Before Time name for the lake.

“Uh-huh,” Inanna said with a yawn.

“I see...” Griselda mused as she noticed Inanna losing the battle to keep her eyes open; it was a side effect of the truth spell she'd used; sighing heavily she told herself that she'd get nothing more out of the fury tonight, “Sleep, Inanna the Fury, you have a long, long journey ahead of you,” in her minds eye Griselda could see just how long that journey would be and at the end of it Inanna would have to face The Others once again...or maybe not, “you'll need all your strength for the fight ahead.”

0=0=0=0

The last thing Miss Kitty Fantastico could remember was a high speed crossbow bolt coming right at her. There'd been a moment of pain, then darkness and then it was like she'd fallen asleep and woken up somewhere unfamiliar. There was also the nagging feeling that she'd used up at least one of her nine lives. Lost and alone, she'd cried for a short time, after all she was still really only a kitten, until the witch found her and took her back to her home. Of course this had been many, many years ago and a lot had happened since then. In fact Miss Kitty was down to her last life and very soon she'd be off to that great cattery in the sky where the mice were all blind, fat and slow moving.

It had been a good eight lives, she'd been the mother to numerous kittens, she'd lived with the witch who'd kept her fed and warm. Shifting a little in her sleep Miss Kitty Fantastico dreamed of fat, slow, blind mice, bowls of cream and warm fires to sleep by, it had been a good nine lives for a cat, apart for the thing with the crossbow bolt, but now it had to all end.

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

Waking up with a dead cat curled up on her chest was not an experience that Inanna wanted to relive any time soon. Crying out in shock and surprise she sat up, there by dislodging the exanimate feline, before looking around the camp in an attempt to discover who'd been putting nonviable moggies on top of her. All she saw was the sleeping forms of her fellow adventurers, the horses, and a smouldering campfire. It was at this point that she got the nagging feeling that she was missing something.

Sitting there next to the body of a mostly black deceased pussy, Inanna searched her mind for any memories of embarrassing instances of inappropriate, drunken sex with tall brown demons, she could find none. However, it still felt as if someone had jogged the pen and paper of her life and she'd missed a few chapters somehow. All thoughts of dead cats, inappropriate sex and missing chunks of her recent life were driven from her mind when Erika woke up, opened her eyes saw the ex-cat and screamed.

“Where the feck did that come from?” she demanded as she sat up and wrapped her blankets around herself protectively.

“Don't ask me,” Inanna stood up and stepped away from her recent sleeping partner; the last time she'd come across a dead cat it'd come back to life as the harbinger of a zombie attack.

Grabbing her sabre she pocked the expired kitty with the tip of her weapon, the cat didn't move so Inanna reasoned that it was, in all probability, really dead.

“Stop playing with the dead cat, Inanna,” Mivbaz's voice drifted to Inanna's ears from the other side of the camp site, “and go and fetch the water. Erika go see to the horses and Diana start packing up everyone's bedding.”

“Dead cat?” Diana asked groggily as she started to roll up her blankets and ground sheet.

“Inanna was sleeping with a dead cat on top of her,” Erika explained.

“Why would she do that?” Diana wanted to know.

“Fecked if I know,” Erika shrugged before going off to check on the horses.

Squatting by the fire, Mivbaz put some more wood on the embers and blew on them until little yellow and orange flames appeared. Smiling to himself he put coffee grounds into the pot; the old witch certainly had an odd sense of humour. Whatever, he shrugged as he got on with making the breakfast. He's persuaded the old witch not to wipe his memory after he'd convinced her that he could destroy the Schtroumpfs and to do that he'd need his memories of everything that had happened recently. He'd also explained to her that he wasn't really a demon and that he really was from another world. 

The witch had readily believed him, perhaps the mad old woman _was_ a lot older than she looked. Finally for a couple of small diamonds the witch agreed to scrub the memory of his conversation with Inanna when he'd told her he was from a different planet. He'd decided he'd been foolish to confess to her and had been wishing he could take it all back, it seemed that his wishes had been answered. He had technology that could wipe memories from the minds of humans, but it was aboard his ship, but the witch's spells appeared to be working well enough.

“Okay, ladies, breakfast's ready,” he called ten minutes later.

Everyone sat down on the ground around the fire for their usual breakfast of coffee, fried salt pork swimming in fat and way-bread that was so dry you had to soak it in the fat from the pork before you could eat it.

“So, how far have we got to ride today?” Diana asked as she worried at a piece of way-bread.

“Not far,” Mivbaz made a show of studying the terran, “in a couple of hours we'll be at the Great Round Lake...”

“Crater Lake!” Inanna said unexpectedly.

“What?” Erika and Diana said together.

“Crater Lake,” Inanna repeated, “it's the real name of Mivbaz's Great Round Lake...” she frowned, “...now how do I know that?”

“You can read, right?” Diana asked as she attempted to cut her way-bread into smaller pieces with her knife.

“Sure I can read,” Inanna replied before using fury powered teeth to defeat her portion of way-bread.

“You probably read about it somewhere then forgot about it 'til now,” Diana shrugged and gave up the unequal struggle with her way-bread, “anyway its a shorter name for it than 'Great Round Lake'.”

“Anyway,” Mivbaz sighed heavily, “as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted,” he wondered if the effects of the spell were slipping from the fury's mind, whatever, if he distracted her she probably wouldn't remember anything else, “I suspect we only have to ride for a couple more hours before we get to the lake...” Mivbaz cast Inanna a warning look as she opened her mouth to speak, “...whatever it might be called.”

“What about those nasty little blue imp things?” Erika wanted to know.

“Well there's no sign of them here,” Inanna pointed out.

It was true none of the trees or plants showed any evidence of recent attacks by the blue imps.

“Maybe we've passed through their territory,” Diana suggested.

“Maybe we haven't,” Inanna countered darkly.

“I think Inanna is right to be cautious,” Mivbaz said, “it would be wise to keep a sharp look out for these imps and be ready to fight at a moment's notice,” he glanced up at the sun, “Now its time we were on our way.”

Standing up Mivbaz collected up the breakfast things as his human companions went off to saddle up the horses. It was obvious from what the witch had told him and from the evidence of his own eyes that the Schtroumpfs had broken containment and worst yet had escaped from his ship. Part of what Mivbaz did was smuggle dangerous animals. On their own world the Schtroumpfs were not a danger, there were so many predators to kill and eat them that their numbers were kept in check. But if they were released onto a planet where there were no predators, then they'd become an ecological disaster. Schtroumpfs ate anything, they preferred plant life but would quickly turn carnivorous for want of a vegetable diet. The queens breed at an alarming rate so they would quickly overrun an area. Then when new queens left the nest to set up colonies elsewhere it had been calculated that the Schtroumpfs could become the dominant land life form on a planet within a year, two at most. From what the witch had said the imps had first appeared six months ago, yet they'd hardly spread beyond the area surrounding his ship. Of course advanced races like his own could easily deal with the Schtroumpf menace. There were chemical and biological weapons that could easily control Schtroumpf numbers, unfortunately he didn't have any of those weapons with him. He didn't even have his personal DEW with him, the one he'd taken from his ship had been lost some months earlier and he'd been reduced to using the primitive local weapons.

“Everybody ready?” Mivbaz called as he packed away his cooking equipment onto the pack horse, there were affirmative replies from his companions. “Good lets mount up and get moving!”

0=0=0=0

Riding in silence at the head of their much reduced force of War-pigs, Samantha and Trinity tried to puzzle out what the blue imps really were.

“...to be honest, sister,” Samantha sighed; they'd gone over every possibility until they'd started to repeat themselves, “I don't know what they are...they don't seem to fit with any description of any imp that I know.”

“Me neither,” Trinity confessed as she looked over her shoulder at the remaining War-pigs; there were only ten now, a couple had been eaten and a couple more had run off, no doubt they'd been eaten too.

“One thing's for sure,” Samantha observed, “we'll need another power boost before we fight them again.”

“I agree, who'd have thought that something so small could be so difficult to eradicate,” Trinity pointed out.

“Perhaps Captain Ozzy had the right idea setting fire to the forest,” Samantha smiled.

“You don't mean...?” Trinity gasped.

“Yes!” Samantha cackled evilly, “Spells of mass destruction!”

“Well, it is the only way to be sure,” Trinity agreed, “but were do we find them?”

“I expect a Hell-Goddess will provide us with something suitably devastating,” Samantha pointed out.

“Until then,” Trinity said quietly, “I'll have Captain Ozzy keep some torches handy.”

“And you'd better keep that rain spell of yours at your finger tips,” Samantha laughed, “how long 'til we catch up with the fury?”

“No more than a day,” Trinity replied, “then we can kill her and go home...I need a proper bath.”

“You're not wrong,” Samantha sniffed.

0=0=0=0

It took them longer than Mivbaz's estimate to travel through the forest to Crater Lake, in fact they had to stop at midday to rest the horses and their butts. Along the trail they'd seen patches of devastated forest where the imps had stripped the land bare of food. As they passed through these areas everyone eyed the forest for any sign of live imps, none more so than Mivbaz. He wondered why the Schtroumpfs hadn't destroyed larger areas of forest, but then the thought hit him; perhaps they had only those areas were out of sight of the track. The next thought to hit him was; how would he destroy the Schtroumpf menace on this world. He couldn't simply fly off in his starship to leave the Schtroumpfs to destroy this planet's ecosystem. 

For one thing, if anyone found out he'd be in _a lot_ of trouble. For another he rather liked the humans, mostly because they were nearly all females and quite sexy. It seemed to him that killing the queen Schtroumpf and destroying any Schtroumpf-eggs that might contain unhatched queens would be the easiest solution. In this case the easy solution would be darn hard, he'd have to fight his way past possibly thousands of Schtroumpfs to get to the queen, plus the queen would be no pushover. Dismounting and letting the horses wonder a little to crop the fresh green grass at the side of the track, the adventurers mostly ate their own meal in silence until Mivbaz said...

“I'm sure we should reach the lake soon.”

“That's what you said five hours ago,” Erika complained as she knelt in an attempt to rest her saddle sore butt.

“I'm sorry but one piece of forest looks rather like another piece of forest and I seem to have got myself all turned around,” Mivbaz replied a little crossly; he had a lot on his mind what with Schtroumpfs on the loose and how he was going to explain his starship to these humans; just at the moment he had no idea what he'd say, but he was sure he'd think of something.

“Okay, guys lets not get side tracked,” Inanna said before turning to Mivbaz and asking, “you sure we're close?”

“Yes,” Mivbaz nodded.

“Demon's pet,” Erika muttered under her breath as she cast Inanna a dark look.

“What was that?” Inanna demanded.

“Well,” Erika sulked, “you were bound to take _his_ side weren't you?”

“ _His_ side?” Inanna demanded again.

“Ladies!” Diana cried out, “Everyone's tired and saddle sore so lets not say anything anyone will later regret,” she turned to look at Mivbaz, “Will we get to the lake before nightfall?”

“Definitely...” Mivbaz nodded his head firmly.

“Before we get eaten by nasty little blue imps?” Erika wanted to know.

“She's got a point,” Inanna agreed, “not that I'm complaining but where are all the little blue feckers?”

“Hmmm,” Mivbaz 'hmmm-ed' in thought, “there seems to be a lot of vegetation so they shouldn't attack unless we pose a direct threat to them.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about these imps,” Inanna said quietly, “are they relatives of yours?”

“I read a lot,” Mivbaz explained and then in a louder voice, “As Inanna says, Erika has a point, from now on we ride as a group with weapons and spells ready to fight. If we are attacked I suggest we ride as fast as possible and if necessary sacrifice the pack horses. I therefore suggest that we all take some food from the packs and put it in our own saddle bags. That way we'll have something to eat...”

“He's right,” Diana said as she stood up and glanced up to check on the sun's position, “but, now I think we better get moving or we'll never get anywhere.”

0=0=0=0

After rounding up the horses and taking some supplies from the packs and putting them in their own saddle bags the party moved off again. They'd only ridden for twenty or thirty minutes when they came to the top of a gentle rise and brought their horses to a halt. There before them lay Crater Lake in all its glory. Sitting in silence on their horses, the three human women looked in wonder at the scene before them, none of them had seen anything quite like it. As the name might suggest the lake was contained in a huge, almost round, crater. The sides of the crater looked very steep and were covered, here and there, in stunted pine trees, there didn't appear to be any way down to the blue water below.

“Are you alright?” Diana asked quietly as she moved her horse closer to Inanna's, “You look like you've seen a ghost,” she added with a frown, “you haven't have you? I mean, seen a ghost.”

“Not as such, no...” Inanna replied numbly, the sight of the crater had knocked her back on her heals, she'd never seen anything so...big! “...how do we get down?” 

“There's a path,” Mivbaz pointed in the direction of a large island that lay close to the west side of the crater wall, he didn't seem to notice Inanna's confusion, “we need to get onto that island, we might have to build a raft to cross the water.”

“Do imps swim?” Erika asked.

“I don't know,” Mivbaz said for public consumption; inside he was telling himself that they must be able to swim or how else would they have got to the shore from the island?

“Erm...” Diana called as she looked at the island and away from Inanna, “...does anyone else notice anything odd about that island?”

“Yeah,” Inanna's sharp fury eyesight picked out several very strange anomalies, “it kinda looks squashed...”

It was true, the north side of the island looked as if it was squashed under something large and very heavy. Trees lay as if pressed into the ground while the ground itself looked unnaturally flat.

“Look at the water...” Diana gasped, “...its like...”

“There's a hole in the water,” Inanna could see it clearly now, she'd dismissed it as a trick of the light before, but now she looked at it properly there was definitely a large hole in the water...with straight edges...as if some large machine was lying there half on the island half in the water. Because she was too far away to gauge its size and by the looks of things a lot of whatever it was was underwater, Inanna guessed that 'it' was very big, she looked at Mivbaz, “Well?” she asked.

“Yeah...” Mivbaz had wondered how he'd explain a starship to people who were strangers to even the concept of flight, but how was he supposed to explain an invisible starship and his ownership of it?

0=0=0=0


	13. Chapter 13

13.

“That's not magic,” Diana announced as the riders came to a halt on the trail above the island.

Having arrived at the lake the four adventurers had ridden along a track that appeared to run all around the circumference of the crater. They'd come to a halt just opposite to the island and its strange cargo. From their new position they could clearly see that the 'hole' in the water suggested something long and wide. It also suggested that whatever was making the hole wasn't a regular shape, the hole appeared to have a lot of indentations. Sitting on her horse, Inanna looked down into the hole, she thought how weird it was to see the water stop in a flat wall and be able to see under water like that, there didn't appear to be any fish however. 

“I said its not magic causing that,” Diana repeated after no one had said anything to her earlier statement.

“Yeah, I guessed as much,” Inanna turned to look at the priestess.

“It's unnatural,” Diana added in a low threatening tone, “it looks like the work of The Others.”

“It's scary,” Erika said as she edged her horse closer to Diana's.

“No its not magic,” Inanna agreed as she turned her head to look meaningfully at Mivbaz, “is it?”

“Of course its magic!” Mivbaz replied nervously.

“Oh no it isn't,” Inanna replied forcefully, she didn't know what it was but her Fury senses were telling her to be on alert.

“Yes it is,” Mivbaz replied, “its just a sort of new magic...”

“Called...?” Inanna asked. 

“Technology...!” Mivbaz realised just a little too late what he'd said.

“HA!” Inanna exclaimed not recognising the word, “So you're not really a demon after all!”

“I so am a demon!” Mivbaz replied with growing panic; he was really beginning to wish he hadn't let the old witch scrub Inanna's memories of him telling her he was from another world; of course he'd also wished that he'd never mentioned the entire alien thing to her either.

“No you're not...” Inanna was about to continue when she was interrupted by Erika.

“He's not a demon?”

“He looks like a demon,” Diana added her thoughts to the conversation.

“He's a not-a-demon,” Inanna was looking pretty annoyed with Mivbaz just now, “who's going to get turned inside out by a very pissed fury in about five seconds if he doesn't come clean!”

“Okay,” Mivbaz sighed heavily, “I'm not a demon, I'm from another world...” he gave Inanna a hard look, “...happy now?”

“Like another world full of evil demons,” Erika chipped in.

“He's a not-a-demon, sweetie,” Diana explained quietly.

“Why didn't you say?” Inanna asked as she ignored the thief's question.

“But I did,” Mivbaz replied.

“No you didn't,” Inanna shot back.

“I did.”

“When?”

“A couple of days back...”

“No you didn't.” 

“I most definitely did tell you...” once again Mivbaz heaved a mighty sigh, “...but then I got the witch to scrub your memory of it.”

“What witch!?” the three women demanded.

“The one with all the cats...”

“Cats!?” Inanna said before anyone else could.

“Hold on...” Mivbaz said before he had to answer more questions about cats and witches.

“What do you mean, 'hold on'?” Inanna snapped back, “You've got a lot of explaining to do Mister or it's hello to inside-out-world!”

“OKAY!” Mivbaz shouted as he rummaged in his saddle bags, after a couple of moments he produced what looked like a TV remote control, he clicked a button and a moment later the space ship became visible. “Happy now?” he demanded, “Yeah I'm a space alien and that's my starship...”

“A starship?” Diana asked.

“A ship for sailing between the stars?” Inanna wondered aloud.

“Oh,” Diana replied with a shrug.

“Space alien?” Erika asked hopefully.

“A creature that lives on another planet...” Inanna pointed out, “...I think.”

“I see,” Erika nodded before giving Diana a disbelieving look.

“Where was I...?”

“You're a space alien and that's your starship,” Inanna said helpfully and pointed at the rather shabby looking vessel that lay half in and half out of the water.

“Right!” Mivbaz cried, “Yeah, I'm an explorer...” he said stretching the truth more than a little, “...my ship malfunctioned and I crash-landed here, I had to get some stuff to repair my ship.”

“What sort of stuff?” Inanna wanted to know, from what she'd seen of this land she was sure she'd have noticed any handy starship repair shops, there certainly weren't in her own country.

“I needed some crystals,” Mivbaz explained.

“Crystals?” Diana asked.

“Erm...you know...”

“Pretend we don't,” Inanna said with more than a little menace.

“Oh you know...” Mivbaz smiled guiltily, “...just crystals...you call them diamonds...and rubies...and sapphires.” 

“You've got them here?” Erika asked eagerly her eyes lighting up with the idea of nearby wealth.

“And that's precisely why I didn't mention them before,” Mivbaz sulked.

“So...” Inanna said slowly, “...if you're a not-a-demon from outer space, where's all you magic gear?”

“Mostly lost,” Mivbaz shrugged, “I've been here quite some time...and like I say its not magic i's technology”

“Whatever,” Inanna, shrugged, “so anyway, how long have you been here?”

“A little over five years...” Mivbaz looked at the three pairs of human eyes which were regarding him with something close to pity, “...well, it takes time to find this stuff.”

“A good thief would have helped you for a small...” Erika corrected herself, “...smallish fee.”

“But I didn't know that,” Mivbaz pointed out miserably, “I was too busy dodging mobs with pitchforks and burning torches and by the time I did it was too late.”

“Erm...if you're one of these space alien things...” Diana mused.

“I'm not a 'thing',” Mivbaz pointed out, “a 'Thing' is completely different...well, actually its a plant that drinks animal blood.”

“A kinda vegetable space vampire?” Inanna asked helpfully.

“As I was saying,” Diana said with a face like thunder, she obviously didn't like being interrupted, “if you're a space alien, then what are those blue imp things?”

“Ah...” Mivbaz looked away to hide his guilt.

“?” replied the three women.

“They were sorta part of my cargo,” Mivbaz explained weakly.

“Cargo?” the three humans waited for a more detailed explanation.

“Look I swear I locked them up before I left...” Mivbaz replied, “...but they must have got out...they're crafty little buggers.”

“Yeah?” Inanna sighed heavily.

“I was going to put them back...” some how Mivbaz didn't look quite as tall and imposing as he had moments before, “...I have a plan.”

“You better,” Inanna warned.

“I have, honest...” Mivbaz grinned at the hostile humans who surrounded him, “...but it sort of assumes we can get back into my ship.”

“Hey...” Erika spoke up, another puzzling thought had come to her mind, “Why did you bring us along?”

“Well...” Mivbaz shrugged, “...in Inanna's case I thought that was obvious...OW!” the space-alien-demon picked himself up off the ground because Inanna had knocked him off his horse, “And I thought I might need some help and then there's the fact that you're all such pleasant company and...”

“You were going to sell us to your evil not-a-demon-space-alien friends, weren't you?” Erika said flatly.

“They're not exactly evil,” Mivbaz tried to explain, “and you'd actually be in a zoo...”

“Zoo?” Diana and Erika asked.

“I'll explain later,” Inanna assured them, her friend, Ayasha, kept a rather large zoo near her stronghold.

“...you'd have been safe and comfortable and lived a lot longer than you would have here...” Mivbaz continued.

“But we'd be in a prison,” Inanna pointed out in case there was anybody who hadn't connected the dots.

“No...no...a zoo,” Mivbaz insisted.

“Stand back sisters,” Diana made some sweeping magical gestures with her arms as blue sparks crackled from her finger tips.

“Hey! Not so fast there magic lady,” Inanna cried as she drew her sabre, “I wanna piece of this bastard before you reduce him to a grease spot,” she turned on the alien and poked him in the chest with the tip of her sword, “tell me why we shouldn't kill you right here, right now?”

“Because we need to get rid of the Schtroumpfs and I'm the only one who knows how,” Mivbaz said with more than a little panic in his voice.

“Sounds like a reason to me,” Erika pointed out with a disappointed sigh.

0=0=0=0

The forest smelt of damp ash and scorched meat as Trinity bent down and picked up one of the imps by the scruff of its neck. Although the diminutive creature was half burnt to death it still tried to bite her fingers with its razor sharp teeth. Turning the imp to ash with the merest touch of her mind, Trinity dusted off her hands and looked back at the trail of destruction she and her sister sorceress had left.

They'd been attacked at around mid-morning by swarms of the little, vicious imps. Working together, Samantha had incinerated scores of the attackers, while Trinity had doused the worst of the flames with her rain spell. However the blue imps had kept coming and by midday both sorceress' were feeling exhausted and low on magic. It was then that they quickly formed a plan. By sacrificing two or three of their War-pig escort for the greater good...or to save themselves from certain death, it depended on your outlook. They tricked the imps into attacking where they'd have difficulty retreating from. Once in the trap, Samantha had rained fire down on the little monsters and must have incinerated hundreds of the ravenous little monsters. Once the smoke and steam had cleared they found that they had in fact killed enough imps to put them off coming after the sorceress' and their few remaining War-pigs.

“How far are we behind our quarry?” Samantha asked as she sat down on a fire blackened bolder at the side of the track.

“Less than twelve hours,” Trinity replied as she too found somewhere to sit, “in fact,” she turned to survey the surrounding terrain, “at a guess I'd say that once we get to the top of this slope we might well be actually able to see her.”

“Thank the pestilent gods for that,” Samantha sighed, “I'm knackered...”

“Me too,” Trinity nodded, “we'll need to make another sacrifice...” she eyed the remaining War-pigs hungrily as she wondered which one of them would make the best sacrifice, “...and get a good night's sleep.”

“I'm hungry,” Samantha pointed out, “these fire spells really take it out of you...but its good for burning off a few pounds.”

“I'm feeling a little dehydrated,” Trinity added.

“That's it then,” Samantha almost groaned as she stood up, “we'll go to the top of this rise see what we can see and then make camp for the evening...”

“You won't find me arguing, sister,” Trinity said as she got wearily to her feet and walked off in Samantha's wake.

0=0=0=0

“I wonder where all that smoke's coming from?” Erika asked but no one paid her any heed.

After sorting out who everyone was and what their real motives were for organising this little adventure, the group had decided to make their way down to the water's edge. This proved to be harder than they'd at first thought, it had taken them nearly an hour to find the path that Mivbaz had assured them was there. Then when they did find it they discovered that it was too steep and narrow for the horses, they'd have to carry anything they needed on their backs, or more accurately Mivbaz's back seeing how he was bigger and stronger than everyone else and had got them into this mess in the first place.

“What do we do with the horses?” Diana asked as she removed the saddle from her riding horse.

“What?” Inanna replied as she tried to get her load of weapons, water and food into a more easily carried position.

“Well, I mean we can't just tie them to a tree or something,” Diana pointed out, “for one thing we don't know how long we'll be gone and what happens if those imps find them?”

“They'll probably get eaten,” Mivbaz replied from under a veritable mountain of camping supplies.

“And if we let them roam loose,” Diana continued, “we'll have nothing to ride out of here on.”

“Its a long walk back to civilisation,” Erika pointed out.

“Let them loose,” Inanna said after a moment's thought, “I don't want them eaten...”

“But...” Mivbaz started to complain but was silenced by one look from Inanna, “...okay, we let them loose but you won't be able to carry all the treasure I promised you...”

“I thought you said that your plan was to sell us to this zoo of yours,” Erika reminded everyone.

“Ah...yes...I hoped you'd forgotten about that...and its not actually _my_ zoo,” Mivbaz sighed heavily.

“Is there actually any treasure down there?” Inanna wanted to know.

“Erm...” Mivbaz hesitated as he weighed up his chances of surviving long enough to repair his ship and get off this hell-hole of a planet, “...I'm sure I can find you something of value.”

“Perhaps we should just kill him now,” Erika suggested.

“No,” Diana shook her head wisely, “we need him to carry the supplies...”

“I suppose so,” Erika agreed reluctantly, “but, can we kill him later?”

“We'll see,” Inanna said as she moved towards where the track started its decent down to the lake.

The journey down to the lake's edge took about an hour. The distance covered wasn't that great, but even Inanna found she had to move slowly and carefully so as not to fall. As it was they had to be careful not to slip on the loose rocks that moved alarmingly under their feet and once or twice Mivbaz did in fact fall causing mini landslides as his greater weight caused the ground to give way under him. Eventually they came to the lake side and gazed out across the water towards their target. 

From her new vantage point, Inanna noted that the starship looked even more down-at-heel than it did from the top of the slope. She had this feeling that it should be a shining silver or neatly painted. This one didn't look as if it'd been painted in a couple of hundred years, there was even what looked like rust streaking its sides. It was, however, impressively big, not hugely big but big, the section that was out of the water had to be at least a hundred yards long and maybe half of that high and wide. From what she'd seen of the hole in the water she guessed that the ship must have as much as another hundred yards or more under water.

Standing there looking at the ship only two or three hundred yards away, Inanna frowned, not only did the craft need a good coat of paint but its hull looked as if it was patched in several places. It also gave the impression that pieces of it had been taken from other space ships and stuck onto the hull seemingly at random. This wasn't the ship of an explorer, Inanna told herself as she glanced over to where Mivbaz divested himself of his load of gear, this was the ship of a shifty smuggler type...but more disreputable.

“Hey!” Erika cried breaking into Inanna thoughts about smugglers or even pirates, “look at all the pretty blue flowers.”

Looking up Inanna saw what Erika was pointing at.

“Those aren't flowers,” Inanna called, the surface of the island where the space ship rested was heaving with blue and white, “those are Schtroumpfs!”

0=0=0=0


	14. Chapter 14

14.

Staring across the water at the island, Inanna saw hundreds of malignant imp eyes staring back at her. At its narrowest the channel between the crater wall and the island couldn't be much more than fifty yards, so, why weren't the imps swimming over to the mainland to rip her and her friends apart? Turning slightly she saw Mivbaz standing a couple of yards away while Erika and Diana stood to her right.

“Mivbaz,” Inanna called.

“Inanna?”

“These Schtroumpfs do they have any weakness we can exploit?” she asked.

“They obviously don't swim,” Mivbaz replied after a moment's thought.

“Anything else?” Inanna asked hopefully.

“I don't...”

“Oh come on Mivbaz,” Inanna sighed heavily, “don't try to tell me that you took these things aboard your ship without checking them out first...like, doing some research?”

Her friend Ayasha was always telling her about the importance of doing research before starting out on any course of action.

“Well...” Mivbaz shifted uncomfortably, “...not as such...”

“You mean you just let them aboard your ship!?” Inanna asked incredulously.

“They were in a stasis field,” Mivbaz tried to explain, “I didn't think I needed to.” 

“Stasis field?” Diana wanted to know.

“Its sort of an area of non-time,” it was obvious from his tone of voice that Mivbaz didn't really know what a stasis field was either.

“Anything else?” Inanna demanded.

“I...” Mivbaz frowned, “...AH!”

“Ah?” Inanna raised an eyebrow.

“There is something...” Mivbaz's face screwed up in concentration as he tried to remember, “...yes, that's it...!”

“That's what?” Inanna asked as she turned to face the space-demon.

“I seem to remember someone telling me that they don't see too well at night, that's when all their predators come out which is why they don't over populate their own world...”

 

“You don't know much do you?” Inanna said quietly, “So, lets recap, they can't swim, they don't see very well at night...anything else?”

“Only another question,” Diana announced, everyone turned to look at her, “well, if they can't swim, how did they get off the island?”

“Perhaps they can fly,” Erika suggested.

“Never seen 'em fly,” Mivbaz commented.

“To be honest you've not seen much of anything,” Inanna pointed out sharply.

“Whatever,” Mivbaz sulked.

“Okay, how deep is the water,” Inanna gestured to the channel between themselves and the island.

“About this deep,” Mivbaz indicated a depth that would leave just over a foot of Inanna above water, “I know because I waded it when I left the ship to look for the crystals.”

“Which was where?” Erika asked hopefully, but got glared at by Inanna and Diana for her trouble, “Whatever,” she sighed and shrugged her not so mighty shoulders.

“A word Sister Inanna,” Diana indicated that she wanted to talk to Inanna alone.

“What's up?” Inanna asked as she and the priestess walked away from Erika and Mivbaz.

“I want to get this straight,” Diana began, “are you going to suggest that we cross to the island and fight these nasty little creatures?”

“Totally,” Inanna replied, “you know they'll just keep breeding and eat everything, right, so we need to destroy them.”

“If what the demon...”

“Not-a-demon-space-alien,” Inanna corrected.

“Alright, if what the Space-alien-demon says is true, I mean how can we trust him, how can _you_ trust him?” Diana asked, “He might not be a human male but he's still a male which means he's inherently untrustworthy...and he used you as his sexual plaything, he got you drunk and maybe used magic on you just so he could...!”

“I know exactly what he did to me,” Inanna replied firmly, “but that still doesn't alter the fact that those things are out there and they need to be destroyed.”

“Perhaps one of us could go for help,” Diana suggested.

“Someone like you, maybe?” Inanna asked.

“NO!” Diana looked shocked that Inanna could think such a thing, “No, I was thinking of sending Erika...I mean you're a slayer and I'm a priestess, we can look after ourselves but Erika...”

“But Erika is just a thief,” Inanna finished Diana's thought for her, “and you don't want to see her hurt because you like her and I mean _like_ her, right?”

“Am I that transparent?” Diana asked; a small smile played around her lips.

“Sorta,” Inanna smirked, “but, no I'm sorry, we need to do this as soon as we can before those things spread any more.”

“Yes, alright, I see why you'd want to do it now, its in your nature,” Diana agreed reluctantly, “but we still don't know how these things get from the island to...”

A 'WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!' sound interrupted Diana as it went by overhead, she looked up to see three imps flying through the air before they landed about five yards further up shore and ran off. Looking back at the island she saw how the imps got ashore.

“...or, they could aways build catapults and cross that way. You know,” Diana smiled, “Erika was almost right.”

“Lucky guess,” Inanna pointed out as she led the way back to where Mivbaz and Erika stood watching the imps being hurled across the channel by the catapult.

“How come they don't hurt themselves?” Erika asked as another batch of imps landed, picked themselves up and made for the cover of the trees.

“Too light,” Mivbaz pointed out.

“Y'know maybe we should do something rather than just stand here enjoying the show?” Diana pointed out.

“She's right,” Inanna ran over to where all their gear lay, retrieving her crossbow and bag of spiky bombs she trotted back to where her friends stood. 

Spanning the bow, Inanna cocked the weapon before loading a bomb, lifting the crossbow to her shoulder she aimed at the imp-catapult.

“Diana, the fuse please.”

Diana snapped her fingers and the fuse came to hissing life; adjusting her aim slightly Inanna loosed off her bomb. They all watched as the bomb sailed through the air leaving a thin smoky trail behind it. The bomb only took a couple of seconds to reach its target. Hitting an upright the bomb stuck to the catapult and hissed as the fuse burnt down. The imp-apult crew looked at the smoking, spiky thing in confusion for a moment before going back to working their machine. Of course they didn't get far as the bomb exploded killing about half a dozen of them.

“Another, I think,” Inanna cocked her bow again and readied another bomb. 

As before Diana lit the fuse with a snap of her fingers, Inanna loosed the bow and the bomb went sailing through the air. This time when the bomb hit the imp-apult there were cries of alarm from the crew-imps who fell over each other in their haste to get away. This time when the bomb went off it not only killed a dozen or more imps but it also completely destroyed the imp-apult and set the remains of the machine on fire.

“Cool,” Inanna smiled.

“Lets hope they don't have another one,” Mivbaz said glumly.

“Looks like we've got a 'demon half empty',” Erika observed before asking, “so what were you two plotting?”

Inanna and Diana exchanged glances.

“Okay, this is what I suggest,” Inanna began, “once it gets dark we wade across the channel get inside the space ship and...” Inanna frowned before looking at Mivbaz, “...there is a door, right?”

“Yes,” the demon nodded, “the main air lock...”

“The what-lock?” Erika wanted to know.

“...the main door,” Mivbaz clarified, “is on the other side of the hull from here.”

“Okay,” Inanna nodded, “we go inside and take on these Schtroumpfs and kill them all...its the only way to be sure.”

“Actually,” Mivbaz interrupted, “we only have to kill the queen and any queen eggs that there might be.”

“Hey!” Inanna smiled brightly, “This just gets easier an' easier!”

“Of course the worker Schtroumpfs will fight like furies to protect their queen,” Mivbaz pointed out.

“See what I mean about 'half full'?” Erika asked the universe.

“Until then,” Inanna took charge once more, “I think we should get something to eat and maybe some rest, agreed?”

“I suppose so,” Diana muttered, anyone could see she wasn't happy but she couldn't think of a better plan.

“Whatever,” Erika shrugged before going off to collect fire wood. 

“Is that the best you can come up with?” Mivbaz wanted to know, “Of course once we're inside we should be able to get to the armoury.”

“Armoury?” Inanna asked her interest piqued.

“Yes there I have weapons you wouldn't believe!” Mivbaz smiled.

“Do they kill Schtroumpfs?” Inanna asked.

“Yes.”

“Cool.”

0=0=0=0

While Erika and Diana cooked some food and Mivbaz sharpened his great clever-like sword, Inanna sat on the shore and watched the imps as the dragged another imp-apult into position. Very soon imps were sailing through the air to land a little further up the beach before scurrying off into the trees and up the side of the crater. It seemed that the imp-apult could toss five imps at a time and it took about three minutes to reload. That meant a hundred imps an hour and if they kept at it twenty-four hours a day that meant two-thousand-four-hundred imps a day and sixteen-thousand-eight-hundred imps a week; Inanna could see how things could get out of hand pretty quickly if the imps were left unchecked and if a queen got to land then things would really go down hill.

Now there was a problem, Inanna told herself, what if there was a queen already ashore? How would they hope to find and kill her before more queens were born and went off to form their own colonies. No, she needed to think positively, there was no real evidence of another colony so when this one was destroyed the imp menace would be over. Getting up she collected her crossbow and bombs. Hitting the new imp-apult with a single bomb she watched as the contraption exploded and burst into flames. Ten minutes later the imps produced another imp-apult which Inanna destroyed this time having to use two bombs; she began to worry that she might run out of bombs before the imps ran out of imp-apults. The imps brought out two more imp-apults which Inanna destroyed using a further three bombs. After this the imps gave up.

0=0=0=0

Galloping as if all The Other's fiends were after him, Captain Ozzy led his last four grunts to what he hoped was safety. The last straw had been when the two human sorceress' had sacrificed three of his grunts to one of their hell-goddess'. They'd said it was so they could get a power-boost and that the grunts should be honoured that they were dying for the greater good. But, Captain Ozzy hadn't believed it, he'd realised that he and his fellow War-pigs were just being fed into the sausage machine of battle and the sorceress' didn't care if they were all butchered or not.

The massive hooves of the War-pig's carthorses thundered hollowly as they galloped for all that they were worth down the forest trails until Captain Ozzy held up his hand and brought the desperate band to a halt. As horse and rider panted for breath he looked back the way they'd just come, surely they were safe now? Hearing something he looked around in confusion, what new terror was this he asked himself. Hearing a loud 'WHIZZ' sound he looked up to see a small black object falling towards him and his grunts. The whizzing sound was followed by a loud 'BANG!' as the object landed in the middle of the group of War-pigs blowing them all to kingdom come!

0=0=0=0

“Well,” Trinity dusted off her hands, “that settled his hash, ungrateful pig!”

“Male chauvinist pig,” Samantha corrected.

“Yeah right,” Trinity agreed, “him and his grunts might not have been human but they were still male...one of these days...”

“Inherently untrustworthy and dangerous,” Samantha interrupted her sister sorceress, “and like you say...”

“One day,” Trinity started to finish Samantha's sentence, “we'll be free of the curse of _all_ males.”

“But until that happy day arrives, sister,” Samantha pointed out, “we still have our sorceress' killer to hunt down and punish.”

“It won't be long now dear Samantha,” Trinity went to stand in front of Samantha so they were almost touching, “just over the next hill and down the slope of the crater.”

“Crater?” Samantha felt her skin flush as she wrapped her arms around Trinity's body and pulled her the last inch or two towards her.

“Never mind craters,” Trinity panted with desire, “lets fuck!”

“I thought you'd never ask!” Samantha cried just before their lips met in a red hot kiss full of passion and lust.

0=0=0=0

“Do you think its dark enough yet?” Inanna asked Mivbaz as they stood together on the lake shore.

“Dark enough?” Mivbaz asked with a puzzled frown, “Dark enough for what? Sex?”

“NO!” Inanna lashed out with a foot and kicked the space-not-a-demon on the shin.

“OWWW!” Mivbaz hopped away from Inanna as he clutched his wounded shin.

“What I want to know is...is it dark enough for the Schtroumpfs not to be able to see us?” having watched the opposite side of the narrow channel for some time she'd not seen any imp activity for half-an-hour or more.

“I expect they've all gone to sleep,” Mivbaz said as he limped back to stand next to Inanna, “are you sure you don't want to have sex? It could be your last chance...OMPH!”

“You just don't learn, do you?” Inanna told the demon as he rolled about on the shingle clutching his testicles, “Next time you mention sex to me you lose them, right?”

“Right...” Mivbaz groaned as he slowly got back to his feet again.

“Okay,” Inanna said as she unbuckled her belt that held her sabre in place, “lets get the others and the weapons, we've got a battle to fight.”

Within a very few minutes the four adventurers had assembled on the shore their weapons held in their hands.

“Okay everybody, listen up,” Inanna said in a loud whisper, “everyone got everything that's pointy and sharp because if you've forgotten anything we won't be able to come back for it.”

“Hold on!” Erika disappeared into the darkness for a moment only to reappear holding several short daggers in her hand as well as her rapier, “Throwing knives,” she explained, “they might come in useful.”

“What about you Di?” Inanna looked at the tall priestess.

“I've got this,” she gestured with her staff, “and all the magic I'll need.”

“I don't have to ask you,” Inanna glanced at Mivbaz who held his great gun, its ammunition and his clever-like sword in his huge hands.

“Once we get aboard,” Mivbaz reminded everyone, “and get to the armoury we won't need these toys.”

“Yeah, like I'll believe in these magic weapons of yours when I see them,” Inanna announced, “in the mean time we'll trust to what we've got.”

“You have a plan?” Diana asked.

“Yeah,” Inanna nodded, “we cross here,” she gestured to the water, “then Mivbaz takes the lead and finds this air-lock thing of his, once we're inside the ship we kill all the Schtroumpfs we can find until we find this queen thing and kill her, okay?”

“Is that it?” Diana wanted to know.

“Uh-huh...” Inanna said as she stepped into the water, “...GODDESS! That's cold!”

0=0=0=0


	15. Chapter 15

15.

Arising from the lake's waters, Inanna felt like a short, blonde and very cold, creature from the depths of a black lake and if she hadn't known better, she'd think there were a couple of fish swimming around inside her jacket. Coming up onto 'dry' land, Inanna also wondered why it wasn't like this in the stories Ayasha had read to her. In all the books and tales she'd read or been told, the hero would climb from the iciest of waters, maybe comment on the coldness of the water and then in the next scene her clothes would be bone dry! Life, she decided, was not like these stories which was totally unfair. Turning to check on her comrades, she noticed that Diana and Erika had come up from the water bone dry and not cold in the least.

“H-h-h-hey!” Inanna shivered, “W-w-what's with the t-t-total d-dryness?”

“Oh, I cast a simple 'repel water' spell,” Diana replied as she straightened her annoyingly dry clothes.

C-c-c-couldn't y-y-you h-h-ave...” Inanna began but gave up as she tried to control her trembling body.

“Sorry,” Diana smiled pityingly at the fury-icicle, “but I could only stretch the spell to cover Erika and myself and I'm not sleeping with you, so...”

“W-w-whatever,” Inanna replied as she made a futile attempt at wringing out her clothes.

“Ladies,” Mivbaz's voice penetrated the darkness, “if you've quite finished discussing spells and who's sleeping with whom...”

“Y-y-you sound just like Ayasha when she was being all disapprovy,” Inanna pointed out.

“You keep going on about this Ayasha woman...were you two sleeping together?” Mivbaz frowned down at Inanna, he appeared to be completely unaffected by his immersion in the lake's freezing waters, “If so, I would mind seeing that...but, never mind, we have to get inside the ship before the Schtroumpfs wake up and notice we're on their island.”

“I thought you said they didn't like the night and all went to sleep,” Inanna pointed out as she followed the space-not-a-demon towards the great, black bulk of his starship.

“I think I said that they don't see too well at night,” Mivbaz pointed out, “but with all the noise you're making they won't have to see us, they'll hear us coming a mile off!” 

“Hey!” Inanna had stopped shivering due to her fury metabolism and the fact she was now moving, “fury here, 'stealthy' is my middle name...”

“I thought you said it was 'Peta',” Erika commented.

“That's so not the point,” Inanna pointed out, “I'm being accused of being...oh my!”

Looking up Inanna found herself under the bow section of the starship, up close and in the dark it looked really imposing.

“So where's the door?” Erika asked.

“It should be around here somewhere,” Mivbaz moved around the front of the craft with his human friends right behind him, “I'm sure its here somewhere...”

“You don't know where the door is?” Diana demanded.

“Well, things have changed,” Mivbaz pointed out defensively, “and it has been over five years.”

Even with her fury night vision, Inanna couldn't make out anything that might look like a door. To her there was plenty of light to see by, stars seemed to fill the sky and there was a half moon shining down on them, to her it was almost as bright as a cloudy day.

“Perhaps if I cast a light spell?” Diana said as she made a gesture and thousands of Tinkerbelle lights filled the air.

“NOOOOOO!” cried Mivbaz just seconds too late to stop the priestess.

“What?” Diana said rather sharply, “There's no need to be so dramatic its only a little light spell...”

“Little?” Inanna asked as she blinked the tears from her dazzled eyes.

“The Schtroumpfs!” Mivbaz cried as he pointed away from the ship.

Turning around, Inanna saw hundreds of pairs of beady red eyes watching them from outside the ring of light cast by Diana's spell.

“FECK!” Inanna cursed as she cocked her crossbow and put a bomb in the firing pouch, “Light me!”

Diana snapped her finger, the fuse began to hiss and Inanna shot the bomb off in the direction of the thickest group of red eyes. Moments later there was a loud bang and a scream from dozens of dying imp throats. This explosion was followed by an even louder 'Bang!' as Mivbaz fired his cannon and killed a score or more rudely awakened imps. 

“FIND THE DOOR!” Inanna yelled as she re-cocked her crossbow, placing another bomb in the firing pouch, she noted that the fuse was already alight.

Loosing off the bomb, Inanna watched it sail through the air to land just in front of a gaggle of snarling, imps who were rushing towards the humans. Just as the imps overran the bomb it exploded and wiped them out. Unfortunately they were soon replaced by another even larger group of blue fiends all eager to rip the humans to bloody shreds.

“THIS WAY!” Mivbaz called as he ran along the line of the starship's hull.

“I hope you find this door soon!” Diana cried as she sent a volley of fireballs towards the imps.

“I remember!” Mivbaz cried as he moved urgently along the starship, “There was a ramp of earth leading from the air lock to the ground its just...along...here...oh!”

“Oh?” Erika stood just behind Diana sword and dagger in hand, “'Oh' doesn't sound good.”

“That ramp...” Mivbaz said, “...its been washed away I can't reach the controls.”

There was another bang as Inanna sent a bomb into the middle of the imp horde.

“They'll be on us in a few seconds,” Diana pointed out as she killed a dozen or more imps with a couple of well placed fire balls, “I can't keep this up forever...”

“I've got an idea!” Inanna cried.

“One that'll save our lives?” Erika asked, “Coz I'm too young and pretty to die by being torn apart by Schtroumpfs.”

“Can you do a barrier spell?” Inanna asked Diana, “One that'll hold the Schtroumpfs off for a while?”

“Yes,” Diana replied breathlessly, “but it won't last long.”

“Doesn't have to,” Inanna said before turning to Mivbaz, “how do I open the door?”

“You can't its too high...” Mivbaz looked up to the door in the ship's hull and saw the narrow ledge along the lower edge of the opening, “...that ledge is only a couple of inches wide.”

“Whatever,” Inanna shrugged, “just tell me how to open the door and throw me up there.”

“It's simple,” Mivbaz started to explain as the imps crashed up against Diana's magic barrier, “to the right of the door there's an inspection panel, it'll open if you touch it. Inside there are three coloured buttons, press them in the order, purple, green, white...”

“Purple-green-white,” Inanna nodded.

“What ever you're gonna do you better do it soon,” Diana called; the strain of holding back the imps was beginning to show as beads of sweat broke out on her brow.

“Get ready...” Inanna cried as Mivbaz cupped his hands.

Taking a short run up, Inanna placed her foot in the demon's hands, half a second later she was sailing upward through the air propelled by the demon's boost and her own strength. Crying out in alarm Inanna found herself flying past the door way. However as gravity took affect she fell towards the curving hull of the ship, with a thud and a groan as she landed on the hull like a bug on a windshield. As her hands and feet scrambled for purchase, Inanna slid down the hull until her toes found the ledge under the door. Reaching out she found the panel, it opened to her touch and she pressed the buttons in the order Mivbaz had told her. After a heart stopping moment when it looked like the door would remain shut, Inanna fell into the darkness of the airlock as the doors swished reluctantly open. Crawling to the edge of the door she called down to her friends.

“Mivbaz!” Inanna cried, “Start boosting people up here, I'll catch them, Erika first.”

Erika was followed by Diana as Inanna heaved them into the ship, this just left Mivbaz.

“Come on Mivbaz jump!” Inanna ordered, “I grab your hand and haul you in.”

Looking from the straining magical barrier that was holding back certain death, Mivbaz looked up to where the short, human girl reached out her hand to him. Yes, he'd heard how strong furies were, but was one strong enough to pull him inside the ship?

0=0=0=0

Standing on the lip of the crater, Trinity and Samantha watched the battle rage below. The sound of explosions rent the night as the flashes from fireballs lit up the darkness like summer lightning. The sorceress' could feel the power roll across the island and up the side of the crater to where they stood. They could also see the huge bulk of the starship as it was lit up by the flashes of magic that threatened to tear apart the very fabric of time and space. 

“Erm...” Trinity began hesitantly, “...I'm beginning to think that this 'past fury' is in fact more powerful than even we are.”

“Agreed,” Samantha replied as her eyes grew wide as she watched a magic shield spring into existence, “and you know what?”

“What?”

“I never did really like Sister Jessica,” Samantha explained.

“And she was insane,” added Trinity.

“So I'm thinking that maybe we...”

“Should reconsider our plans for retribution?” Trinity asked hopefully.

“I mean,” Samantha continued, “what's to gain from taking on this ultra powerful fury and possibly losing our own lives?”

The battlefield was now ominously quiet.

“Indeed,” Trinity agreed eagerly, “perhaps we should go for help?”

“Agreed,” Samantha nodded, “then we'll come back and deal once and for all with those blue imps and this powerful...”

“Extremely powerful...” Trinity corrected.

“Yes, of course, extremely powerful fury and her hellish fiends...”

“You think the fury controls the imps?” Trinity asked.

“But of course,” Samantha started to move away from the crater's edge, Trinity followed half a step behind her, “why else would they attack us with such single minded determination?”

“Yes, yes,” Trinity agreed as she hurried to keep up with her fast moving friend, “of course I see it all now...”

“Come along sister,” Samantha cried as she almost broke into a run, “we have a long walk ahead of us!”

“Coming, sister, coming!” Trinity cried as she sprinted after her sister Sister.

0=0=0=0

“It's very dark in here,” Erika said what everyone else was thinking.

Having managed to catch hold of Mivbaz's wrist as he'd jumped for his life, Inanna had heaved the space-demon into the airlock. For a moment Mivbaz had lain on the deck like a beached whale until he'd jumped up and hit a control with the palm of his hand. The outer door had slammed shut with frightening speed leaving the adventurers in total darkness.

“Yeah,” Inanna agreed with some feeling; even she was blinded by the total absence of light, “how about some light Mivbaz?”

“I'm trying but I can't see what I'm doing,” the demon replied to the accompaniment of odd bleeps and whistles.

“I mean this is a bit of a design flaw...” Inanna pointed out, “...no lights in the doorway.”

“The lights should have come on auto...OW!” there was a flash of an electrical spark and a slight smell of scorched demon.

“Maybe this'll help,” Diana said as a solitary and rather feeble Tinkerbelle light appeared in the middle of the chamber, “sorry,” the priestess sighed, “its the best I can do at the moment.”

Even this poor light allowed Inanna to see more clearly around the airlock. There were open panels with lengths of cable hanging out of them along with pieces of what she assumed was space ship lying on the floor. The walls were covered in oily hand prints and the deck was covered in dried mud. From the ceiling hung what looked suspiciously like more bits of spaceship, this was not how she'd imagined the inside of a spaceship to look like; first, she'd imagined magically gleaming control panels and flashing lights. This example of supposedly, interstellar transport looked as if it was held together with bailing wire and string. Just as Inanna came to the end of her critique of the airlock a tube of light flickered sullenly into life and flooded the airlock with its feeble, pearl white glow.

“Now,” Mivbaz moved across the chamber towards the inner door, “why hasn't the inner door opened?”

“The inner door should open?” Inanna asked a seemingly foolish question; but, if the inner door hadn't opened when it should that meant they were basically stuck in here.

“As soon as the pressure in the airlock equalises the inner door should open,” Mivbaz explained as he ripped off the cover of an inspection panel and started to do something with the controls inside.

“Sister Inanna,” Diana began in a worried tone, “do you understand what's going on?”

“A little....a very little, my friend Ayasha told stories about this sort of thing,” Inanna replied, “I don't think we need to panic just yet...soon...” she added, “...but just not now.” Inanna had hardly finished speaking when the inner door swished open and stuck half way, “See?”

Not waiting for anyone else, Mivbaz tried to climb through the gap and got stuck half way through. It took the combined strength of all three women to push him the rest of the way. After releasing the not-a-demon from the door, Inanna led the way into the corridor outside the airlock. What she saw was a little more like what she expected of a not-a-demon spaceship. It looked a little like the corridors of the underground temples she'd explored. However, every few yards or so a light hung from the ceiling or flickered intermittently. The floor looked as if it hadn't been swept in decades and the walls were stained from long use and probably thousands of hands all of which were probably bigger than human hands.

“I'm no expert,” Erika whispered, as she ran a finger along a ledge and studied the dust she'd picked up, “but I've seen ancient tombs and ruined buildings that are cleaner than this.”

“I've gotta admit its not what I expected either,” Inanna agreed.

“So, how do you understand what we're seeing?” Diana asked Inanna.

“This way!” Mivbaz pointed down the corridor and prevented Inanna from having to answer Diana's question, “We must get to the armoury before the Schtroumpfs notice we're aboard the ship.”

Following the fast moving not-a-demon, Inanna wondered how the Schtroumpfs had found a way out of this decrepit death-trap, tripping on an exposed cable she decided to forget her questions for now and concentrate on not falling over. Drawing her sabre, she took up a position from where she could cover the rear of the party. As they moved along the passageway they crossed from areas of light to dark, depending on how many lights were working, Inanna could have sworn that she could hear something following them.

“How much further?” Inanna called from the rear.

“Not far now,” Mivbaz called back, “just around that junction up ahead.”

This time as Inanna turned to check the rear, she was sure that she'd seen a tentacle being quickly withdrawn from a half open door. 

“Hey, Mivbaz,” Inanna called, “you haven't got any more critters on this ship you've neglected to mention, huh?”

“At last!” Mivbaz cried as he stopped in front of a door.

“Oh, feck!” Inanna muttered in weary resignation, “Look out girls, tentacles!”

0=0=0=0


	16. Chapter 16

16.

The monster was like an octopus, or to be more accurate, several octopus' with a body about three feet across and mostly made up of a tooth fringed mouth. The creature's arms grew from all over its torso and each not only came equipped with sucker, it also had a little, beady black eye and a set of crab-like pincers on the end. Opening its mouth it gave a high-pitched squeal rather like the one now coming from Erika's mouth.

“AAAAGH! KILL IT! KILL IT!” Diana insisted as she and Erika backed up the corridor towards where Mivbaz was frantically punching numbers into a key pad next to a door.

Taking a step towards the creature, Inanna swung her sabre and cut a good eighteen inches off the end of a tentacle that was reaching for he body. Sticky, black blood squirted from the severed arm to spray across the corridor walls. The monster gave an almost girlish scream as it shied away from the advancing fury. However, the creature only retreated so far, it soon stopped and renewed its attack. Several fast moving tentacles came at Inanna as the monster attempted to engulf her in its deadly embrace. Moving faster than the monster, Inanna parried each of its attacks with the edge of her sword and every time blade edge met flesh a tentacle fell writhing to the floor.

Blood oozed and sprayed from the trunks of the severed tentacles as Inanna pressed her attack. With her sabre whirling like a very whirly thing, she chopped off tentacles one after another sending them pin-wheeling across the passageway. Black blood squirted and spurted in every direction to cover the walls and floor in a thick, sticky goo. Forcing the creature back step by step, Inanna was just about to deliver the coupé-de-grace when a beam of intensely bright, white, light shot past her and hit the monster squarely in the mouth. The creature screamed loudly as it writhed in agony and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air. Moments later the monster sagged to the floor and lay dead and the beam vanished. Turning Inanna saw Mivbaz standing between Erika and Diana and herself a strange silver, gun-like weapon in his hand.

“You couldn't have done that _before_ I got covered in its blood?” Inanna demanded; she was indeed covered in the creature's black blood.

“Sorry,” Mivbaz lowered his weapon, “but I couldn't remember the combination for the door.”

“Another outfit ruined,” Inanna muttered to herself as she walked back to where Mivbaz stood, “so, you got one of those fancy magic-guns for me?”

“Erm...” Mivbaz hesitated as his mind went over the ramifications of handing over advanced weapon's technology to 'primitives'.

“That wasn't really a question,” Inanna waved her bloody blade casually in Mivbaz's direction, “it was more of a suggestion.”

Mesmerized for a moment as the tip of the sabre swung by inches from the end of his nose, Mivbaz came to a rapid decision.

“Of course, friend Inanna,” Mivbaz smiled insincerely, “come...”

Leading the way into what was obviously the armoury, the space-not-a-demon selected three additional weapons from a rack attached to a bulkhead. Following Mivbaz into the compartment, Inanna let her eyes roam over the unfamiliar weaponry that lined the wall in neat ranks.

“Expecting trouble?” she asked as she let her fingers glide over the smooth metal surfaces of the weapons; as she did so her fury instincts told her what each weapon she touched could be used for. 

“It's merely a side-line of mine,” Mivbaz started to explain but was brought up short by Inanna.

“Gun runner, huh?”

“Oh I wouldn't have said that,” Mivbaz replied defensively, “that kind of implies I'm doing something illegal.”

“And you're not?” Inanna took the weapon that Mivbaz held out to her, it altered its shape to fit her hand perfectly.

“No, no,” Mivbaz continued with an air of total innocence, “I like to think of myself as more of a facilitator, one who helps the oppressed peoples of the galaxy free themselves from...from...”

“Oppression?” Inanna asked, with a small grin on her lips.

“Sister Inanna?” Diana called as she stood in the doorway to the armoury, “What's going on and what magic did the demon use to kill that thing?”

“Magic?” Inanna paused as she thought about how she was going to explain a magic-gun that she couldn't explain even to herself to someone to whom firearms were fairly new, “Erm...its not magic like you know it,” Inanna smiled reassuringly, “these,” she gestured with the gun in her hand, “well you've heard of magic swords, right?” 

“Certainly,” Diana nodded.

“Well, these are kinda the same but they're guns.”

“You're sure,” Diana asked, “and they're not works of The Other's evil magics?”

“No,” Inanna shook her head and noted how Diana believed in The Others when it suited her, “I can almost definitely guarantee that they're not works of The Others.”

“Almost?” the priestess frowned.

“Oh, okay then,” Inanna sighed, “they're not works of The Others or any other evil entity.”

“Good,” Diana came forward and took a weapon from Mivbaz's hand, “now how do they work?”

“Just hold it here,” Mivbaz pointed to the weapon's pistol grip, “let the weapon fit itself to your hand...”

Diana gasped with surprise as the weapon conformed to the shape of her hand.

“Now,” Mivbaz continued, “the weapon can only be activated by its owner. When you see something you want to shoot you point the weapon and then press the firing stud, here,” Mivbaz guided Diana's finger to the weapon's trigger, “and let the weapon do the rest. When you want it to stop firing release the firing stud.”

“It aims itself?” Inanna asked if the sheriff's pistols had been like these magic weapons she'd have kept them.

“Basically,” Mivbaz nodded.

“So much for being a fury,” Inanna muttered with a shake of her head.

After handing a weapon to Erika and explaining to the girl how it worked, the group dumped all their equipment except their new guns and their bladed weapons on the armoury floor.

“What was that thing?” Inanna asked as they went back out into the corridor and gestured to the remains of the dead tentacle monster.

“That was...” Mivbaz thought for a moment, “...well, in your terms I suppose you'd call it, the ship's cat...”

“The ship's cat!?” Inanna exclaimed.

“It lived off the vermin that gets aboard any ship...”

“Big vermin, much!”

“Well...” the demon shrugged his shoulders, “...it was a lot smaller and cuter when I left five years ago...its probably been eating the Schtroumpfs.”

“Anything else we should know about?” Inanna wanted to know.

“Not that I can think of,” a worried look crossed Mivbaz's face but it soon disappeared, “anyway we must find the lair of the Schtroumpfs and destroy their queen.”

“And where do you think they are?” Diana asked moments before Inanna could.

“Well they were in the main cargo hold when I left,” Mivbaz explained, “I think we should start our search there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Inanna agreed, “which way?”

“Down here,” Mivbaz gestured down the corridor to his left.

“Okay,” Inanna smiled up at the space-demon, “after you.”

0=0=0=0

“Is this stuff natural?” Erika asked about fifteen minutes later.

The little party of adventurers had been moving steadily downwards and towards the stern of the ship. Several times they'd had to double back when they'd found a passageway blocked by deep water or a collapsed bulkhead. The 'stuff' that Erika was referring to was a black, resinous material that almost seemed to grow from the walls, floor and ceiling.

“Erm...” Mivbaz examined the stuff, it was sticky to the touch, “I'm not sure...it could be what the repair-bots use to fill in holes in the hull.”

“Repair-bots?” Inanna asked.

“Of course,” Mivbaz shrugged, “you didn't think I ran this ship by myself did you?”

“Now that you mention it, not really,” Inanna said before continuing down the dimly lit corridor.

“So, friend Inanna,” Mivbaz was walking close to Inanna and kept his voice low, “how come you're not overawed by being on a starship...in fact how come you seem to accept the existence of starships. From what I've read this planet never attained interstellar flight.”

“From what you've read, huh?” Inanna glanced up at the demon.

“Don't try to change the subject,” Mivbaz chuckled; the old witch had told him that Inanna had been alive for a long time and he was beginning to wonder just how long.

“Okay,” Inanna replied, “lets just say I read a lot, my friend Ayasha had a big library with lots of very old books in it.”

“Yeah, right...” Mivbaz was about to say more but a call from Erika called the party to a halt.

“Does anyone else get the feeling that we're being followed?”

They were now in an area where most of the ship's lights had failed and the ones that were still working glowed redly giving the resinous material that encased the bulkheads an even more spooky appearance.

“Now you mention it...” Inanna moved to stand next to the young thief and raised her gun to cover the corridor back the way they'd just come, “...I do,” she looked at the girl, “any of your relatives furies?”

“Nah,” Erika shook her head, “its just a thief's highly developed sense of paranoia...nothing weird.”

Staring into the red and black shadows, Inanna saw nothing untoward.

“Okay,” she turned away to face back in the direction they'd been headed, “lets get moving...at least we're not being dripped on.”

Within yards of where they'd paused, Inanna felt something warm and wet drip onto her face.

“Me and my big mouth,” she sighed, “hey,” she turned to look up into Mivbaz's redly, demonic, face, “that was warm,” she wiped at whatever had landed on her face, “are there any steam engines around here?”

“Steam engines?” Mivbaz looked down at Inanna, “What do you know about steam engines?”

“Quite a lot as it happens, I also know that in situations like this they tend to explode after doing the whole, 'you have five minutes to reach minimum safe distance' thing, when minimum safe distance is a mile away!”

“Ah, yes I see what you mean,” Mivbaz nodded, “but there are no 'steam engines' in this part of the ship.”

“Then what's...hey!” Inanna wiped at something that had landed on her head, she looked at whatever it was that had come off on to her hand, “That's not water that's...”

“Inanna!?” Erika and Diana wailed from behind her.

“What?” Inanna called back as she stood examining the blob of sticky stuff that had landed in her hair.

“L-LOOK!”

Turning to see what was causing so much excitement, Inanna saw what was worrying Erika and Diana. The passageway behind them was floor to ceiling, wall to wall, imps.

“AAAAGH!” screamed Erika and Diana as the imps surged forward.

“SHOOT THEM!” yelled Inanna as she followed her own advice and activated her weapon.

In an instant the corridor was a confusion of flashing beams of energy and exploding imps. Whenever an imp was touched by a beam it exploded in a spray of superheated steam, but still the imp horde came on, there seemed to be hundreds, maybe even thousands of them rushing towards the ravening beams; however many Inanna and her friends killed there always seemed to be more to take their place. But, even as the beams swept over the imps snuffing out the lives of dozens of the voracious little creatures the humans and their not-a-demon confederate were forced back. Arriving at a four way junction, the party was set upon by renewed hordes of sharp toothed, little, blue imps. Firing continuously Inanna could feel her weapon grow hotter in her hand by the second, her fury instincts were telling her that it would be _bad_ to let the gun get _too_ hot.

“We've gotta get away,” Inanna called over the chittering of the imps as they clicked their sharp teeth together, “we'll give them one last good blast with our guns then when I say, we run!”

Sweeping their beams over the imps, Inanna saw dozens if not hundreds vaporized in the white hot rays of energy. Seeing that the imps had been pushed back she reasoned that now was as good a time as any to run.

“RUN!” Inanna yelled but failed to mention which way they were supposed to run.

While she and Mivbaz ran off down the companionway to their left, Erika ran off to the right and Diana ran straight on towards the stern of the ship. Confused by the sudden disappearance of their prey, the imps paused for a minute or two before heading off in pursuit.

0=0=0=0

Having run as fast and as far as she could, Erika rested her back against a wall as she caught her breath. Looking left and right she realised that she was hopelessly lost, not that she'd known where she was to begin with. However there didn't appear to be any imps around so she told herself that she must be winning. Looking at the weapon in her hand, Erika smiled, if nothing else came of this trip she still had the gun. It seemed very powerful and if she ever got out of this death trap she thought she could probably sell it for a queen's ransom. Or, she could keep it herself, she wondered if it could cut through metal. Whatever, she sighed as she pushed herself away from the wall, she had to get out of this so-called ship before she could sell anything to anyone.

Looking back the way she'd come, Erika decided that she didn't want to go that way. The only way out appeared to be by going further down the corridor towards an area of red light that spilled from an open door about twenty feet ahead of her. Gripping her gun and bringing it up to cover her advance, Erika moved towards the light.

Arriving at the door, she didn't simply rush into the chamber ahead, years as a thief and con-woman had taught her to take things slowly and scope out the way ahead. Kneeling down she carefully peered around the corner of the door and found herself looking into a large, red lit, chamber. This must be the cargo bay the demon had been talking about. The floor appeared to be completely covered in little, leathery, eggs each about six inches high. As she looked further, she saw there were eggs stuck to the walls and even a few on the ceiling. 

Standing up, Erika took a couple of steps into the room. This, she told herself must be where all the imps came from. Reasoning that there must be something that had laid all these eggs she realised she must have found the queen's chamber. But, if this was the queen's chamber then where was the queen? Moving a little further into the chamber, Erika didn't notice the room come alive with imps until it was too late.

0=0=0=0

Pushing open a half closed door, Diana found herself in a chamber full of eggs. Quickly realising what she'd found, she was about to turn and go and find her friends when the sound of a heavy foot step caused her to pause and look to her left. There, in the steam shrouded red light of the chamber stood the hideous form of the imp queen. The queen had to be eight feet tall, its bloated egg engorged belly strained against its hide. Unlike the bald imp 'workers' the queen had long, blonde hair, that fell in lank rat's tails around her shoulders. Sensing Diana's presence, it turned its huge head to look at her and hissed.

It was then that Diana saw the limp and unconscious form of Erika lying on the chamber's deck. Obviously the worker imps had captured her and left her for their queen to eat. The queen turned away from Diana, obviously not seeing her as a threat, and moved towards its meal. Lifting her weapon, Diana pointed it at the queen's obscenely bloated body.

“Get away from her, BITCH!”

0=0=0=0


	17. Chapter 17

17.

Turning with frightening speed the Imp-mother's head snapped around as she reacquired the priestess. Taking one heavy footed step towards Diana the vile creature hissed threateningly at the pathetic human that was disturbing her feeding time. Holding the gun on target with both hands to stop it from trembling, Diana suddenly found she had a crisis of conscious, could she really kill this creature? She'd killed hundreds of Imps just like her friends, but this was different, could she kill the mother? After all wasn't the Imp-mother just another 'mother' protecting her young? Wasn't motherhood one of the ideals that all women strived for? Could she really just press the firing stud and wipe this mother from the face of the earth?

“Yes...” Diana said to herself as she fired the weapon; call it love or just call it lust, somethings were stronger and more basic than mere, learnt morality.

The beam caught the Imp-mother directly in the face. It cut through her head and came out the other side. For a moment the Imp-mother stood transfixed as if the beam of light was holding her upright. It was only after, Diana had stopped firing that the monster crashed to the floor in a heap oozing, sticky, blackly-red, blood onto the deck plates.

“Erika!?” Diana cried as she rushed towards her lover, “Erika!” on her knees Diana knelt next to the teenager shaking her in a frantic attempt to wake her up.

It only took, Diana a few seconds to calm down and remember her training, she was a healer and it was time for her to practice all the skills she'd learnt instead of acting like an ignorant, silly, village girl who knew nothing. Taking a deep breath, Diana started by loosening Erika's clothing while checking her pulse and breathing. The girl's breathing was regular and her pulse strong; as long as there were no hidden injuries there was no reason why she shouldn't wake up at any moment...so she slapped her smartly across the face.

0=0=0=0

“Do you know where we are?” Inanna asked; she and Mivbaz were standing at the junction of four corridors in a better lit part of the ship.

Having run, the fury and the space-not-a-demon had kept running, in fact they'd kind of overdone the entire 'running' thing and were now in a completely different part of the ship. At least this is what, Inanna told herself, this part of the ship looked a little more like what she thought the inside of a starship should look like. The floor had been kept clear of junk, in fact there was only a thin layer or dust on everything; probably caused by the ship being left deserted for so many years. Along with the mostly clean corridor, okay it looked old and worn in places but it didn't look like the death-trap the other parts of the ship she'd seen had, most of the lights still worked.

“Well?” Inanna prompted as Mivbaz looked up and down the passageway as if looking for some sort of landmark.

“Erm...” Mivbaz took one last look around, “...if I'm not very much mistaken around that corner,” the space-not-a-demon pointed to another junction a couple of yards away from where they now stood, “should be my quarters.”

“You're what?”

“My quarters,” Mivbaz repeated as he looked down at Inanna, “you could have a shower and get out of those bloody clothes,” a grin spread slowly across Mivbaz's lips, “I'm sure I could find you something clean to wear...”

“You could!?” Inanna asked, her clothes were covered in space-octa-pussy blood and the material was getting stiff as the blood dried, there was also an olfactory issue, “Well...” Inanna frowned, a shower and a change of clothes would be nice, but she couldn't not while her friends were in danger.

“I'm sure Diana and Erika are quite safe,” Mivbaz said as if he'd read Inanna's mind, “and,” the not-a-demon waved his great hand in front of his nose, “I have to say you don't smell as sweet as you once did.”

“You thought I smelt nice?” Inanna asked for a moment forgetting about her friends.

“Oh certainly,” Mivbaz moved slowly forward and took Inanna by the arm and started to lead her towards his cabin, “a sort of earthy, flowery smell...like lilacs.”

“Lilacs...” Inanna sighed before snapping out of whatever control Mivbaz seemed to have over her, “...HEY!” Inanna pulled her arm from the demon's grip, “Totally hold up there buster,” she snapped, “this better not be some trick to get me into bed again...”

“NO!” Mivbaz made a placatory gesture, “Me? Trying to get you into bed? No, never...the thought had never crossed my mind,” he lied, “why would I want to do that when our friends are no doubt fighting for their lives? No...” he shook his head sadly, “...you're right, you should forgo the transitory pleasures of a shower and a change into fresh clothes, forget that the Schtroumpfs can probably smell you coming from six decks away, forget the possibility that that blood could be toxic to humans...”

“Toxic?” Inanna asked in a worried voice.

“Perhaps even caustic,” Mivbaz added innocently.

“Caustic?” Inanna was really worried now, she didn't know about caustic but she certainly felt itchy all over.

“No, no, no!” Mivbaz shook his head as he turned to head back the way they'd come, “We should forget about what that blood might be doing to your complexion, your hair and your lungs, you're right our friends need us!”

“My hair?” of its own accord, Inanna's hand went to her head and her fingers scratched at her blood encrusted scalp, “Oh my,” she said in a very small voice, “perhaps...” Inanna paused and took a deep breath, “...perhaps we should go to your quarters and I should get cleaned up...I mean I'd not be helping my friends if my hair falls out and my skin peels off...right?”

“If you're sure?” Mivbaz stopped and turned back to look down at Inanna.

“I think its for the best...and there's the smell, I mean we wouldn't want the Schtroumpfs smelling us coming now would we?”

“Certainly not,” Mivbaz agreed, “now if you'd like to follow me?”

0=0=0=0

Mivbaz's stateroom was only a few yards away around the corner of the companionway. This area was even cleaner than the previous corridor, Inanna noted, but it still looked old and worn; she guessed that the starship might well have passed through several set of hands before it came into Mivbaz's possession. Standing at the door, Mivbaz punched numbers into a keypad to the left of the door.

“Do all the doors have those locks?” Inanna wanted to know.

“Only the important ones,” Mivbaz replied as the door opened with a 'klunk-swish', he stepped through the now opened door and turned to face Inanna, “welcome to my humble home,” he gestured for Inanna to join him inside.

Stepping into the room, Inanna paused for a moment as the door swished closed behind her; the room was big, bigger than she'd imagined it would be. It was all soft red light and softer looking furnishing. Inanna recognised a small kitchen area, another area that might have been for sitting and chilling out in, but she frowned when she saw the large bed with the mirror above it.

“Shower?” Inanna asked trying to ignore the bed and its red satin-like sheets and soft, inviting, looking pillows.

“The fresher's over there,” Mivbaz pointed to a door that Inanna hadn't noticed, “you get cleaned up while I find you something clean to wear.

“Okay,” Inanna eyed the not-a-demon suspiciously, he didn't appear to be trying to seduce her but...but, he was a _demon_ whatever she might say and he'd done it before, maybe she shouldn't go through with the shower.

“Everything alright?” Mivbaz asked conversationally.

“Alright?” Inanna still hesitated from going into the fresher.

“You look and sound a little reluctant,” Mivbaz pointed out.

“Oh...” Inanna shrugged, she was the fury she could look after herself and she did stink, “...oh, its nothing.” 

Stepping over to the door, Inanna pressed the door actuator and stepped inside the fresher. Checking that the door was firmly closed and that there were no hidden CCTV cameras, Inanna started to unfasten her stiff clothing. Having left her weapons out in the main room, Inanna left her blood stained clothes in a pile on the floor. The bathroom looked like a human bathroom (like the ones Ayasha had in her stronghold) the only difference being that everything was demon sized. The other thing that stood out was the fact that everything looked as if it had been freshly cleaned, it certainly didn't look as if it had been left deserted for the last five years. 

Dismissing these observations as problems for another day, Inanna opened a closet to find it full of fluffy bath towels, no magic hot-air-Inanna-driers then, she told herself with a grin. Next she picked up several containers and sniffed each of them in turn. Choosing one that smelt the most like soap she advanced on the big shower unit in the corner on of room. Having to reach up a little, as has been noted the room had been designed for an eight foot tall demon and Inanna was only just over half Mivbaz's height, she got the water running and at a comfortable temperature. 

Sighing with relief and pleasure, Inanna let the water play over her body washing away the dirt, grim and blood of the last twelve hours. Watching as the dirty, bloody water swirled down the drain, Inanna sighed sadly, one of the things she really missed from her old life was hot water and really good plumbing. Yes in this land she could demand hot water, but it could take the serving girl half an hour before it turned up, plus she could only dream of showers. Baths, usually metal ones, were fairly common and the less said about other bathroom facilities the better. At least in Ayasha's stronghold there had been hot water boiler on the go for most of the time.

All too soon, Inanna found she couldn't get herself any cleaner than she was now, plus if she stayed under the hot water for much longer she would end up looking like a bright-pink prune. Stepping out of the shower she dried herself off before wrapping another dry towel around herself and another around her wet hair. Collecting up her soiled clothes and holding them in a bundle she opened the door and stepped into the big room.

“What should I...do...with...these...” Inanna words came slower and slower as she felt herself over come by the familiar feeling of being drunk.

Catching herself as she stumbled and dropped her clothes she looked over to where Mivbaz stood naked by the bed.

“Oh no...” Inanna groaned as she was powerless to stop herself divest herself of her towels and walk over to where Mivbaz stood, “...not again?”

0=0=0=0

“Oh my head hurts,” Erika mumbled as she finally woke up, “what...?” the memories of the last couple of hours came back and hit her right between the eyes making her cry out, “OOW! The monster!?”

“It's alright its dead,” Diana reassured the girl as she helped her sit up and held her in her arms, “how do you feel?”

“Terrible,” Erika moaned as she held onto Diana.

“Any bones broken?”

“I don't think so,” Erika replied after doing a quick inventory of all her outlying body parts.

“Good, there's just a big lump on your head,” Diana explained, “I think you just have a minor concussion.”

“It doesn't feel very minor from here,” Erika rubbed the back of her head.

“Trust me I'm a healer,” Diana explained, “and its really time we should be going.”

“Do we have to?” Erika asked, “Couldn't I just lie here for a while...in fact why don't you lie down here next to me?”

“Erm, Erika,” Diana smiled, “much as I'd like to we're still in the queen's chamber and the Schtroumpfs might come back to find out who killed their queen.”

“Darn,” Erika sulked, “I suppose we should move...here help me up.”

Helping Erika to her feet, Diana made sure she wouldn't fall down again before leaving her side to collect up their weapons.

“Where're Inanna and Mivbaz?” Erika asked as she accepted her ray-gun back from Diana.

“Don't know,” Diana shrugged, “they ran off in the opposite direction from us.”

“Oh, I suppose we better find them and tell them that the queen is dead,” Erika said.

“You're right,” Diana agreed, “who knows what trouble they've got themselves into without us to look out for them?”

0=0=0=0

“You total bastard!” Inanna cried as she climbed out of Mivbaz's bed and wrapped a sheet around herself, the demon just smirked at her in a self satisfied way, “How do you do that, and don't say I was drunk because I know wasn't!”

“Sdemghashbs,” Mivbaz explained.

“Huh?” Inanna replied none the wiser.

“Look,” Mivbaz sighed as he sat up in bed, “every time I got you into bed it was because I'd sprayed you with Sdemghashbs, they kinda make you feel drunk and want to have sex with me...but they don't work unless you're sort of open to the idea anyway...and you have to admit that you did enjoy yourself...”

“But why?” Inanna wanted to know, “Why pick on me?”

“Apart from the obvious,” Mivbaz sniggered but was silenced by a bellicose glare from the diminutive fury, “I find you almost irresistible.”

“Almost irresistible?” Inanna asked in the sort of tone of voice that told Mivbaz he better be careful how he answered.

“Its the hair...”

“My hair,” Inanna's hand reached up to touch her hair, “what's wrong with my hair that half an hour with a brush, comb and scissors wouldn't fix?”

“Well,” Mivbaz shrugged and pulled a face, “its kinda just hair...now if you'd agree to remove it...all...you'd be totally irresistible!”

“AAAGH!” Inanna cried in frustration, “I'm not shaving off my hair for anyone!”

“Who said anything about shaving?” Mivbaz asked innocently, “I've got creams and in the sick bay there's a machine that'll completely remove all your hair permanently...its completely painless too!”

“Oooooh! Shut up!” Inanna snapped, “For the last time I'm not removing any hair...in fact I'm going to let it grow longer.”

“Oh come on Inanna,” Mivbaz pleaded, “what's a little hair between friends?”

“We're not friends,” Inanna scowled.

“Could have fooled me,” Mivbaz smirked again, “but seriously, Inanna, if you just agreed to get rid of all that unsightly hair you could come with me...”

“Go with you?” Inanna asked.

“Yes...” Mivbaz took a deep breathe, “...I like you, even with all the hairiness and I know that deep down you like me...”

“Huh,” Inanna said with all the derision she could muster.

“...just say you'll get rid of it all and you can come with me and see all the wonders of the known galaxy...and of course have loads of really fantastic sex!”

Much to her own surprise, Inanna found herself seriously considering Mivbaz's offer. After all what had she got to keep her in a land that wasn't really hers? Some weeks previously she'd sort of admitted to herself that she'd never get home; she didn't even know which direction home was in! All she'd have to do was go bald and she could travel this galaxy place with a space-not-a-demon who wasn't that bad a person (for a not-a-demon)...and to be honest the sex was _way_ better than with any of her human lovers had been which included (she was sorry to say) the little sex she'd had with Ayasha. Looking at Mivbaz as he waited for her answer, Inanna knew she couldn't say yes, she tried to tell herself that it was the hair thing that was holding her back, but she knew that wasn't the reason. The chances were that Mivbaz would actually make her happy and that wasn't the Inanna-way, she would never be truly happy unless she was miserable.

“Sorry,” Inanna sighed sadly, “I can't, no...”

“No?” Mivbaz shrugged and didn't sound anywhere near as upset as Inanna thought he should, “Oh well, never mind, I thought I should ask...anyway,” he got off the bed, “I better find you something to wear.”

0=0=0=0


	18. Chapter 18

18.

What Mivbaz 'found' for Inanna to wear was; black, skin tight, see-through and with only enough strategically placed opaque areas that barely covered her embarrassment...there were also boots.

“Are you sure this is all you could find?” Inanna demanded as she and the space-not-a-demon walked along a corridor towards the stern of the ship, weapons in hand.

“Oh yes,” Mivbaz grinned as he followed Inanna along the passage way his eyes glued to her butt. 

The truth was he'd scanned Inanna while she was in the shower and had the replicator in his stateroom make Inanna's new outfit. He'd also had the replicator design several more versions of Inanna's outfit for her to wear if she changed her mind and agreed to accompany him across the universe. His plan had been to tell her that what she was wearing was how fashionable humanoid girls dressed this season. His problem would be when Inanna found out he was lying, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. But this wasn't all his ship's internal scanners had done. Now the ship's computer banks held vast amounts of data on Inanna, both physical and mental. More than sufficiently detailed enough to make an exact copy of her using the weird piece of alien tech he had hidden away in the sick-bay..

Of course by now Inanna didn't believe a word of what Mivbaz told her, no doubt this was the demon's way of having her walk around nearly naked. However, the outfit was strangely both warm and cool depending on the outside temperature and waterproof, it also seemed restraint to snags the couple of times she'd scraped passed sharp objects...perhaps in future she could wear it under her more normal clothes.

“Yeah, right,” Inanna answered the demon, “come on we better find...! Hi girls!” she cried as she turned a corner and almost collided with Diana and Erika.

“Inanna!” cried Diana, followed by a more restrained, “Inanna?” when the priestess noticed what Inanna was almost wearing.

“WOW!” was all Erika had to say as she took in Inanna's outfit and before she turned to Diana and said, “I want one of those.”

“You can totally have this one if I can find some proper clothes,” Inanna replied.

“Enough of this fashion talk,” Mivbaz announced, “we must get to the control room...”

“Hold on demon,” Diana snapped, “you promised us treasure, there'll be no going anywhere unless its to go to your strong room.”

“She's right,” Inanna turned to look up at Mivbaz, “you did promise us treasure and I think I deserve a _huge_ bonus seeing how you've taken advantage of me so often.”

“Alright, alright,” Mivbaz sighed, “I keep all my treasure in the control room...and what about the queen Schtroumpf?”

“Oh she's dead,” Erika smiled, “Diana killed it!”

“You did?” Inanna asked and Diana nodded modestly, “Way to go Diana!”

“It was nothing really,” Diana replied modestly.

“Oh, that's alright then,” Mivbaz started to lead the party towards the mysterious control room, “what about all the normal Schtroumpfs, huh? Did you kill them all?”

“Well of course not,” Erika replied indignantly, “but I _did_ kill the queen.”

“Well we need to kill them all,” Mivbaz explained, “my plan was to go into orbit and open the ship to vacuum...”

This intelligence was greeted with blank looks from everyone who wasn't a space-not-a-demon.

“Whatever,” Inanna shrugged as she turned to face her two human companions, “I think what Mivbaz means it'll kill all the Schtroumpfs...” she looked up at Mivbaz, “...even the eggs?”

“They'll freeze, then I can get the maintenance bots to throw them out into space,” Mivbaz picked up the step as he hurried towards the front of the ship.

Just as Inanna thought they were going to walk all the way to the bow, Mivbaz led them down a short ladder, along another corridor, around a corner and through a door with a security key pad and into the control room. Realising that there was no need for a control room to be at the front of the ship, Inanna took a moment to look around. The bridge looked very future-ish and magical to Inanna's eyes and hardly rundown at all. It was also fairly obvious that the bridge had been designed for at least six people to run, this reinforced Inanna's feeling that Mivbaz wasn't the first owner of this ship.

Just for a moment Inanna reconsidered her decision to not go with Mivbaz, it was obvious to her that the demon needed help running the ship. Then there was the idea of seeing this 'know galaxy' thing, revealing outfits not withstanding, and then there was the sex...okay Mivbaz might want her to remove all her hair but that was a small price to pay for a life of adventure, good sex and well...fun. It was the idea of 'fun' that was holding her back she realised. The chances were that Mivbaz would make her happy and she wouldn't be able to live with that, so... So, she'd remain being a stranger in a strange land and be miserable.

“Okay, so where's the treasure?” Erika demanded, “Me an' Diana are going to get married so we'll need the treasure to set up home somewhere.”

“Oh congratulations!” Inanna cried happily as she gave her two friends a fury strength hug, “Did you hear that, Mivbaz?”

“What?” Mivbaz was doing something on the other side of the bridge.

“Diana and Erika are getting married...” suddenly Inanna felt the need to be happy, at least for a short period, “...hey,” a frown crossed Inanna's face for a moment, “can anyone else hear that?”

“You mean that chittering and high pitched squeaking, snarling noises you mean?” Erika asked, as she took a firmer hold on her magic-gun.

“That's the one,” Inanna agreed and brought her own weapon up and at the ready.

A moment later everyone cried, “SCHTROUMPFS!!!”

“Where are they?” Erika wanted to know, searching the compartment with her eyes for any sign of the little blue imps.

“Outside somewhere,” Diana replied as she pointed at the door to the control room which was thankfully closed, “I'll cast a locator spell...” the priestess began to chant.

“Weapons ladies!” Mivbaz took the gun from his belt as Inanna and Erika aimed their guns at the door.

“Diana,” Inanna began breathlessly, as the sound of the approaching imps got louder “where are they?”

“Outside the door,” the priestess replied, “thirty paces...”

“Stay frosty everyone,” Inanna backed towards the centre of the bridge her weapon at the ready.

“Twenty paces,” Diana called out.

“Why should we be frosty, its not that cold in here?” Erika asked with a frown.

“Don't forget, ladies, wild uncontrolled bursts,” Mivbaz advised.

“Fifteen paces...” Diana called out, pulling her own weapon from her belt “...ten paces...”

“Hold on, that's inside the room,” Inanna stepped forward looking for the advancing imps but found no sign of them.

“That's what the spell says,” Diana confirmed as she covered the door with her own weapon.

“Then you've not cast it right!” Inanna replied sharply.

“Here you look,” Diana made a gesture with her hand and suddenly Inanna could sense where the imps where. 

“THEY'RE IN THE SERVICE DUCTS!” yelled Inanna as realisation struck.

Instantly four beams of intense energy lashed out cutting through the service ducts in the ceiling and spilling scorched and smouldering imps onto the floor. The demon and his three human friends played their beams over the imps killing them by the hundred as the vile little creatures tried to come within biting rage. But they never did, the few remaining imps retreated long before the guns ran out of power or overheated.

“That was close,” Erika gasped as the last imp ran for the cover of a junction box chased by a beam which hit it and flashed it into ash.

“Yeah,” Inanna agreed, “hey Mivbaz I think I'll...”

“Look this way ladies,” Mivbaz called interrupting Inanna; everyone turned to look at the demon, there was a bright flash and...

0=0=0=0

Blinking open her eyes, Inanna found herself standing near the rim of the crater. Looking down into the crater itself she saw that the starship was gone. It wasn't invisible, she could tell because the water was back where it was supposed to be; the demon and his spaceship had left and Inanna had been about to tell him that she'd go with him after all.

“What the feck!?” Erika's voice intruded on Inanna's thoughts of yet another missed opportunity, it was like Ayasha all over again.

“Magic...” Diana said as she slowly realised what had happen, “...can anyone remember how we got here?”

“From the ship you mean?” Inanna asked.

“Yes,” Diana called back.

“No...” Erika sighed as the prospect of married life without the treasure they'd been promised loomed large in her head, she'd even been the one to agree to have the majority of the babies; apparently being pregnant would mess with Diana's magic.

“No...” Inanna sighed too, after realising she wanted to go with the demon she was miserable now she'd realised he'd gone without her, “...at least the horses are still here,” Inanna gestured to where the horses and the rest of their gear stood.

“HEY!” Erika cried, “The old demon didn't leave us empty handed after all,” the girl ran over to where several small, canvas bags lay in the grass and opened one, “GOLD!”

0=0=0=0

Watching as the surviving imps were sucked out into the vacuum of space, Mivbaz smiled, he was glad to be off that primitive planet and back in space where he belonged. Of course the ship would need a lot of work done on it to get everything repaired and running again, even now the maintenance bots where making copies of themselves so the work could be done faster. Plus there were all the queen's eggs that would have to be found and thrown out of the airlock...unless he could repair the stasis field and store them for future sale somewhere else, but in the mean time...

Pushing himself out of the pilot's chair, he made his way off the bridge and along the corridors until he came to the medical bay. After typing in the combination the door slid open and he walked in. Standing just inside the compartment, Mivbaz looked over to where the big coffin shaped machine stood, its indicator lights all flashing purple, he smiled. Over the years he'd picked up a lot of interesting things, some he'd sold, others he'd kept for himself, just at the moment he was congratulating himself for keeping this particular artefact and learning how to use it. Walking over to the machine he opened the lid and looked at the figure lying, seemingly asleep inside.

“Wake up Inanna,” Mivbaz called softly.

“Mivbaz?” Inanna frowned a little as she blinked open her eyes and stared up at the space-not-a-demon, “Mivbaz?” she smiled sleepily on catching sight of her friend and lover.

“Hi Inanna,” Mivbaz smiled down at her.

“Did I fall asleep?” Inanna pushed herself up into a sitting position, she felt a little confused as if she'd forgotten something very important, like; locking all the doors before going on an adventure.

“Just for a little while,” Mivbaz explained, “you had a bump on the head but you're alright now...do you trust me?”

“With my life...” Inanna reached out and took hold of Mivbaz's huge hand.

“Everything's going be alright...” the space-not-a-demon smiled reassuringly.

“...now you're here...” Inanna replied happily.

Yes his sensors had done a good job of recording Inanna's physical dimensions and so far there seemed to be no problem with her programming, she'd not tried to attack him so he reasoned everything must be alright, but just to be sure he'd run some tests later.

“Brrrr,” Inanna shivered as she stood naked on the cold deck, “I hope you brought some clothes for me to wear.”

“Here,” Mivbaz picked up an outfit which was the twin of the one he'd given the real Inanna, only this one was in red.

No, he told himself, he shouldn't say or even think that, this Inanna was just as real as the Inanna that had stayed on Earth, they were identical in every way...except one rather important detail.

“That's better,” Inanna smiled as she pulled on her new outfit, standing up she caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror, her hand went to her smooth head, “I suppose I'll get used to this hairless thing...”

“You will,” Mivbaz smiled, “and its safer, I mean you don't want your hair getting in your eyes if we go into freefall.”

“Whatever,” Inanna shrugged, it also seemed as if she'd had a lot of new knowledge put in her head, like she knew what freefall meant, “so, what's the what?”

“Well,” Mivbaz sighed heavily, “there's lots of work to be done to get the ship space worthy again...”

“So we better get started,” Inanna headed towards the door, “there's a whole galaxy out there and I want to see it all!” she stopped in the doorway and turned to smile up at Mivbaz, “I just know I'm going to be, like, totally happy with you, Mivbaz...”

The space-not-a-demon smiled as he watched Inanna disappear through the door and head off up the corridor, yes they would both be very happy...

“Mivbaz?” Inanna's head reappeared around the edge of the doorway, “I'm not doing everything by myself...now move it!”

“Yes dear!” Mivbaz called as he trotted off after Inanna the Inanna-nator.

0=0=0=0

“So, where will you go now?” Diana asked Inanna; they'd saddled up their horses, packed their pack-horses and divided up the treasure.

“I thought I'd go south,” Inanna replied, they'd found a track heading more-or-less south and Inanna had decided to find out what was at the end of it, “you?”

“We thought we'd go back to Glid,” Diana replied.

“The place with all the bears?” Inanna asked.

“Yeah, why not?” Erika shrugged, “Diana's gonna set herself up as a healer.”

“Yeah,” Diana nodded, “I thought I'd give the preistessing a rest for a while...its brought me nothing but grief.”

“You found Erika,” Inanna pointed out as she gave the sky a wistful glance.

“True,” Diana agree, “and what will you do, Inanna the Fury?”

“Oh...” Inanna gave a shrug and smiled, “...there's always work for furies.”

“Dangerous work,” Diana pointed out quietly, “you could always come back to Glid with us.”

“No...” Inanna shook her head, “...I've a feeling that destiny wants me to go south.”

“Be careful, Inanna,” Erika walked over and gave Inanna a hung and a kiss on the cheek, “Destiny can be a real bitch.”

“Good luck,” Diana hugged Inanna, “may the Goddess ride with you always.”

“And with you,” Inanna called before she turned away and headed for her horse; mounting up she watched as Diana and Erika waved before heading back towards Glid, “Looks like its only you and me now,” she told her horse and pack-horse, “lets get...”

Turning her horses to the south, Inanna looked over her shoulder one last time to see Diana and Erika ride off into the trees.

“Whatever...” wiping a tear from her cheek, Inanna urged her horse southwards.

As she rode she recited a few lines of a poem she'd heard somewhere...“For its fury this and fury that and anything you please! But a fury ain't a bloody fool...or am I?”

As she rode she couldn't help but wonder what her life would have been like with Mivbaz amongst the stars.

0=0=0=0

“HARDER, MIVBAZ!” Inanna cried, “FASTER! I want to be able to see my face in those deck plates before dinner!”

As he redoubled his efforts with the cleaning unit, Mivbaz wondered what he had done. He'd wanted a sex-slave and companion, but he seemed to have unleashed a monster on the universe!

The End.


End file.
